social worker accessing electronic patient data in citizen home

    April 8, 2020

    Electronic health record improves patient safety

     

    In connection with the 10th anniversary of their electronic health record, the Central Denmark Region has produced a podcast looking back at what implementing the system has meant for the region.

    In the Midtcast podcast, Ole Thomsen, head of corporate management, Lone Winther Jensen, medical director at Randers Regional Hospital and Jonas Eskildsen Sørensen, BI office manager, talk about the past and future for Columna, also known as Midt EPJ in Central Denmark Region. Further, they talk about what implementing the system has meant for everyone’s daily working lives in recent years.

    The electronic health record (EHR), which has been created in close collaboration with the clinicians that use it, is accessed every day by 22,200 of the region’s employees. The system, which is often praised for its user-friendliness, is continuously being further developed. Midt EPJ was implemented 10 years ago in response to a need for an electronic health record system after the end of the road had been reached for paper records. Midt EPJ was designed to give employees an overview of patient data and to make their working lives easier. In addition, the electronic health record could also save employees the time it previously took to locate paper documents.

    The benefits over the past 10 years include the many insights into all the data which can help to improve patient treatments, and which are always accessible in electronic version.

    In fact, the intelligent use of data is highlighted as a key success, and holds considerable potential for the future use of Midt EPJ. The large data volumes help to identify patterns in the patient information and support the predictability of possible readmissions and other risks for patients. Data also provides new knowledge which can be used by the clinicians in other contexts.

    In conclusion, the electronic health record is generally regarded as a success.

    Midt EPJ is the name given by Central Denmark Region to its electronic health record system which has been delivered by Systematic. The solution is actually called Columna Clinical Information System, and in coming years it will be implemented in the North Denmark Region and the Region of Southern Denmark, which will bring the total number of users up to 60,000 people.

    The podcast Papirjournaler gav bøvl: Afløseren løftede patientsikkerheden (Paper health records caused problems – their replacement improved patient safety) is available in Danish on e.g. Spotify (requires login to Spotify).