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Toronto clinic patients avoid healthcare headaches with Web-based system
Nightingale On Demand - a Web-based application is helping some 100 "test" participants at a Toronto clinic avoid the usual "headaches" that afflict most patients - such as long waiting lines in doctors' offices, and worries about lab test results.8/26/2008 6:00:00 AM By: Nestor E. Arellano
Imagine a world in which patients are able to check their lab test results from the comfort of their homes, submit blood pressure readings to their doctors without going to the clinic, get prescription refills online, and even decipher physician scripts.
That world may not be too far away thanks to an electronic medical records (EMR) developed by Nightingale Informatix Corp., and now being tested at a Toronto clinic.
Dubbed Nightingale On Demand, the Web-based, hosted application is helping some 100 "test" participants at the clinic avoid the usual headaches that afflict most patients - such as Long waiting lines in doctors' offices, and worrying about lab test results.
What's more, patients can print out instant copies of their medical history.
"The patients are very happy to have greater control over their medical records, and faster access to information that matters to them," said Dr. David Kaplan, a physician at the North York Family Medical Centre (NYFMC), and an assistant professor of family and community medicine at the University of Toronto.
Around 6,500 to 7,000 patients visit the five-doctor clinic that Kaplan heads. Doctors see at least 70 to 90 patients a day.
With those kinds of numbers, NYFMC decided, five years ago, to streamline records management by transferring its paper-based patient records to the EMR model developed by Nightingale.
Initially, Nightingale On Demand helped doctors and clinic staff cut workload and reduce wait times for patients, but now patients are also taking advantage of the application's self-service features.
NYFMC patients are given secure online access to their medical records through a site hosted by Nightingale. The connection enables patients to conduct a wide variety of transactions without the assistance of clinical staff or physicians - and provides them with speedier access to certain records.
Page Navigation 1) EMR system eases waiting room pain. - page 12) Get lab tests results on your computer screen. - page 2
3) Decipher your doctor's handwriting. - page 3
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