Hospital Corner

Computers have been used in healthcare for decades now. Initially it was thought that they would easily keep everything at our fingertips, from all of our health care providers including our PCP (primary care providers) and our specialists. We continue to work toward improvement as we often have different systems. The dream that we would all just be able to see records on each of our patients in total requires more coordination than we initially thought. We continue to strive for complete records to help us care for our patients’ needs.

We are implementing a new system at Columbia County Health System clinics (Waitsburg Family Clinic and Columbia Family Clinic) that enables us to have more of this information easily assessable. This “CareManager” keeps information about chronic conditions as well as the recommended routine screenings literally at our fingertips. This improves our ability to make sure that we do not miss out on opportunities to keep our patients up to date with recommended screenings (mammograms, colonoscopies, vaccines) and that we keep chronic conditions (such as diabetes, COPD, high blood pressure ) in good control using the most up to date and accurate information. And it is literally at our fingertips at all times!

We will also be able to use this system to make rosters or lists of patients with similar conditions. This will allow us to make sure that we are able to reach out to patients whom we have not seen in some time. This is Population Health and we take the health of our community very seriously. This will also allow us to reach out in times like our current pandemic to make sure that we can do status checks on patients whom are not coming into the clinic at this time.

And that brings me to the most current technology use that we are working toward. Visits through telecommunication. As one of my patient’s states, we will be “TV Doctors” and will be able to conduct some visits that are appropriate through our computers. During this time of reduced access of getting out of our homes, this will help to keep folks connected and up to date with these “virtual office visits”. For those who do not have computers, some visits may be done over the phone.

We take very seriously the current worldwide health crisis and want to keep all of our dear patients healthy. We strive to find safe ways to accomplish this.