Physicians who refer patients to Cleveland Clinic can get near real-time updates on their patients' treatment, thanks to an online portal called DrConnect.
To use the system, outside physicians first go through a registration process in which they virtually sign a business associate agreement to maintain compliance with HIPAA. They are then able to securely view the records of patients they referred to Cleveland Clinic just as they would appear on Cleveland Clinic's internal electronic medical record system.
"We put a wrapper around our existing EMR platform to make a communications vehicle to provide referring physicians the ability to see their patients' records in near real time," says Jonathan Schaffer, MD, the managing director of eClevelandClinic, part of Cleveland Clinic's IT division.
As soon as Dr. Schaffer closes out of a patient's record, he knows that information is available to be viewed by the referring physician. The referring physician will also get an email alert the next morning about a generic update to one of their patient's records. "What better way is there to connect with a referring physician than through a secure portal?" says Dr. Schaffer.
The portal remains secure because of the thorough registration process and because physicians (and any nurses or assistants they may designate as proxies) can only see the records of patients they referred to Cleveland Clinic, rather than being able to search the entire EMR system. "But once they're in, they get a view similar to our EMR and can see doctors' notes, lab results, imaging studies and more," explains Gisela Nehring, the manager of DrConnect.
The response from outside physicians who use DrConnect has been positive. When patients are referred to a specialist and get new information or a new treatment suggestion, they naturally want to go back to their referring physician and talk it over with the provider who knows them, and their medical history, the best, says Dr. Schaffer. "Now the information on the specialist visit is available very quickly" to the referring physician, he says, allowing that discussion with the referring physician to happen without being delayed by missing faxes or mailed paper records.
The portal has also allowed caregivers to pick up a physical therapy or medication regimen exactly where the hospital left off, without waiting for records to be transferred. "The continuity of care has improved because they're able to see what happened yesterday and start right at that point," says Ms. Nehring.
DrConnect can also be used by providers with any EMR vendor or record management system. The referring physician views the records online, so interoperability is not an issue. With DrConnect, "there really are fewer problems with accessibility," says Dr. Schaffer, and records are available almost instantly to any referring physician.
To Dr. Schaffer, providing referring physicians with immediate access to their patient's information is exactly aligned with the overall mission of Cleveland Clinic. "The goal is to extend the care model from the community, to care with us and then back to the community," he says.
Dr. Schaffer sees DrConnect as an important step in health IT's progress to remove barriers, geographical or otherwise, that impede care continuity. "Transferring medical records used to be a point of friction" preventing a smooth transition between providers, he says. "With DrConnect, that friction is disappearing."
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