(EMAILWIRE.COM, October 09, 2006 ) Rohnert Park, CA -- When Dr Peter Franklin sees a diabetic patient at his primary care practice in Middlefield, Ohio, he doesn’t have to remember the formidable list of checks that the American Academy of Family Practitioners recommends for every such visit. Or plow through an unwieldy chart containing information about all the patient’s ailments.

Instead, with one click on his computer, a list of reminders pops up giving him all the information about the individual relevant to his diabetes.

“The reminders cover all the usual indicators for long-term follow up. They tell me what he said when I last asked him if he was losing any feeling in his feet or when he last had his eyes tested to see if there was any diabetic damage. They remind me of the medications he is taking and if he has any allergies. They alert me to any new tests that are due.”

Franklin also has many patients with back pain. He has put into his computer system all the dozens of tests that make up the widely used Oswestry scoring system – lifting, standing, sleeping and so on – so that the results for any individual patient come up with just a single click while the consultation is taking place.

The principle can be applied to any specialty, Franklin says. “Just think of the long lists a rheumatologist needs to look at to decide if a patient has what officially constitutes lupus or rheumatoid arthritis or all the changing conditions a gynecologist needs to keep track of. Computers make all that much simpler.”

The most obvious advantage of these computerized methods, Franklin says, is the amount of labor saved. “One doctor can do everything a heavily staffed office can do – and probably better because it is all in his own control.” He works alone, with just a receptionist, seeing twenty patients a day. “That saves a substantial amount of overhead,” he says.

“I could see more patients but I feel very comfortable spending twenty minutes or so with those patients whose problems aren’t too complicated. In most cases, that gives enough time to make personal contact, deal with a couple of medical problems and attend to services like making out referrals, writing prescriptions and so on, all of which I do on the computer.”

Franklin’s working methods reflect what he sees as the fundamental benefit of computerized note-making: improved quality of care. “Most medicine today is what’s called snapshot medicine. Time is so short and medicine so complex that you address only the things that hit you in the face,” he says.

“But with an efficient electronic system, doctors not only can spend more of their time face to face with patients – which is what they are paid for – but easy access to what’s relevant in the patient’s history makes it much more likely that nothing important will be overlooked.”

The system Franklin has used since 1999, ChartWare, was designed by Dr. Dan Essin, Director of Informatics at the Los Angeles County-U.S.C. Medical Center, to enable all doctors to adapt it to their individual way of working. “It took me just half an hour to add the diabetic reminders to the standard program,” Franklin reports.”

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Contact:
Dr. David Tully-Smith
Tel: 707 323 2298
dts@chartware.com
www.chartware.com

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