The Impact of the Electronic Health Record Systems on the Medical Industry in Underserved Areas

The Peter Christensen Health Center which is located in a quite medically underserved rural area in Wisconsin is proving how the electronic health system is a great help for the medical field. The transition from traditional to the so called EHR (Electronic Health Record) system has been smooth and it proved to offer the best support and improved performance even when the circumstances are extremely challenging.

The Peter Christensen Health Center has been founded in 1960, and up until 2010 it has been offering medical services only for members of the Lac du Flambeau Indian tribe in their reservation which is no bigger than 114 square miles. However, as the years passed, the expectations and needs have raised significantly.

The center has been relying at the beginning on funding from the Indian Health Service and the Lac du Flambeau of Lake Superior Chippewa. Funding has proven too little after a time, compared to the complex medical challenges the center had to face. The population grew significantly, so there was need for more medical force in order to be able to solve efficiently the health issues of the people.

The Health Center has decided that they need different sources of funding, so it became a health facility that would serve the community at large. This fact automatically meant that a huge number of people started seeking their services, and the center staff realized that the good old billing system is not that efficient anymore.

Patients were coming from all over the area, and this also meant that the center had to serve even more people who were under –insured/ uninsured and who were on Medicare and Medicaid insurance types.

In 2009, the clinic moved from a 5,000 square feet facility to a building that had 26,000 square feet, and in early 2010 the clinic became a Federally Qualified Health Center. Soon the center understood that besides the acquiring the FQHC status, a major change was needed in trying to manage better the wealth of clinical information.

Thus, instead of taking it slowly, the Peter Christensen Health Center implemented directly the EHR data management system, which immediately proved very effective.

Quite shortly there have been noted major positive changes in the financial sector, because the investment for the EHR system paid off in as little time as six months. The system was able to save approximately 10 minutes per patient.

Putting an end to checking/filling out the paper records and flow charts manually, the automated management system has brought much more effectiveness in the center’s financial and administrative field.