No patient who is at least 65 years old should ever go to a hospital emergency room without his or her electronic medical record being present. This is the opinion of Dr. Matthew Narrett, chief medical officer for Erickson Health, the nation’s largest integrated wellness and health system for people in this age group.

Few hospitals in the United States have the technology that is required to receive and process electronic medical records. As a result, emergency room doctors lack patient information related to immunizations, advance directives, medications, X-rays, Cat-scans, MRIs, family histories, and recent medical visits.

This information is crucial, according to Dr. Narrett, who said that 80 percent of a successful diagnosis by a doctor comes from knowing the patient’s history. “Timely and comprehensive information about a patient – particularly in an emergency room — can mean the difference between an appropriate therapeutic intervention and an ineffective, potentially risky situation.”

Erickson Health has invested nearly $2 million to bring its medical records for the more than 21,000 people who live at Erickson campuses nationwide online. The health system has already seen improved efficiencies, better outcomes and cost savings as a result of its move to cyberspace medical histories.

“Without having access to electronic medical records, doctors in hospital emergency rooms must often make educated guesses about a diagnosis, based on lab work for a patient that is compiled in a compressed timeframe,” Dr. Narrett said. “There is no reason for this to have to be the case.

“A doctor is only as good as the information that he or she is given,” said Dr. Narrett. “Electronic medical records are the future, and the future is now.”

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