Mark Medical Inc

Joplin Tornado and how Electronic Medical Records play a part

This blog will discuss Electronic Medical Records and how they did or did not play a part in the Joplin tornado.

As you know by now the Joplin , Mo. was hit by an EF5 multiple- vortex tornado on May 22 , 2011 . St. John's Medical Center was destroyed by the tornado and will have to be rebuild in a different location. Some of St. John's pateint paper records and x- ray film were find 70 miles away in Springfield , Mo thanks to the power winds of the tornado.

However three weeks before the tornado hit St. Johns M.C. had converted over to EMR as of May 1. Therefore they were able to set up tents with computers in their parking lot and access all their current patient records in order to transfer patients to different hospitals in a 150 mile radius of Joplin, Mo. What a smart and timely decision that was !

On the other had one of my surgeons in Joplin office had the windows blown out and rain and wind came into her office and water logged 200 patient paper records. Now those 200 water logged records are going through a " freeze dry" method in order to dry them out and hopefully restore them.

Yet I still have doctors and office managers give me daily excuses why they don't want to convert to EMR or if they do make the switch they want software downloaded on their office computer and /or must have their own server physically located in their office for safety / piece of mind reasons so they have control of their records. REALLY ?!?

If this Joplin Tornado story does not convince you that the smart and safest decision to convert over to a Web Base EMR and have information stored in the cloud with multiple servers off site I don't know what will.

Please go to Mark Medical Inc Facebook to see recent pictures of destruction of St. Johns M.C. and medical offices.

Sincerely,

Mark Nolte

Twitter : @markmedicalinc