Few Pediatricians Use Specialty Pediatric EMR Software Solutions

Only a tiny percentage of pediatricians use a specialized pediatric EMR, says the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey.  EMR and EHR use, according to the results, depends largely on the practice’s size and the gender of the pediatrician.  The results were found to be troubling by experts in the pediatric field, as it means that important exams and procedures essential in pediatrics could be unsafely documented.

368 pediatricians out of 646 responded to the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey .  The physicians were nonresident pediatricians belonging to the American Academy of Pediatrics in either offices or clinics.  In 2009, only 3 percent of survey respondents had implemented an EMR or EHR tailored to the pediatric specialty.  54 percent reported to use a general EMR and this number continues to rise because of the Meaningful Use reimbursement incentives.    

Pediatricians appear to be one to two years behind the national average in implementing fully functional EMRs, says the survey report’s author.  The biggest barrier to implementing a pediatric EMR is the cost, reported the responding pediatricians.  Along with cost, finding a software solution that meets their practice’s specific needs was the other reason.  Surprisingly, Meaningful Use isn’t a big motivator for upgrading to specialty software; growth charts are the only thing close enough to meeting actual incentive criteria.  However, using a general internal medicine EMR lacks commonly used pediatric templates such growth charts, immunization records and weight-based drug dose prescribing, leaving the pediatrician to complete them with paper charts or create a new template from scratch.

The survey also revealed that certain factors contribute to who implements and who doesn’t.  Single and two-physician practices were 5.1 times less likely to implement a basic EMR than a larger multispecialty group practice or hospital.  General pediatric clinics were more likely to have an EMR than specialty pediatric clinics. And curiously, the pediatrician’s gender shown to play a role in implementation as well - males were twice as likely to have an EMR software solution in their clinic than females.

School Nurses Access Pediatric EMR in Delaware

Delaware, the First State, has become the first state to connect a health system with public schools.  According to an article on Newsworks.org, the Red Clay and Milford school districts have teamed up with the Alfred I. DuPont Hospital for Children and the Nemours Children’s Health System with the goal of improving the continuity of care of young patients.  School nurses in these two districts can now access students’ medical records via the health system’s pediatric EMR.

Nurse access to students’ electronic medical records ensures that children with chronic health conditions such as asthma, diabetes and epilepsy that require multiple medication doses are attended to during school hours.  Children oftentimes forget to take medication or feel embarrassed to take it in front of their classmates, so they won’t take it at all.  "I think that if you had a chronic illness that would give you a lot of security when you send your child to school. You're not just putting the inhaler or insulin in their bag and hoping that everything goes well," says pediatric pulmonologist Dr. Katherine King.  Viewing electronic records in real time allows the nurse to stay current with the students’ conditions, medications and dosages.     

  

Secure access to a pediatric EMR from the school informs nurses and teachers about aftercare following a hospital stay, emergency room visit or serious illness through customized pediatric SOAP note templates.  Pediatricians can electronically capture parents’ signatures on consent forms that can be sent directly to the school.  With the adoption of EMR use, schools can also automatically receive doctor’s notes for excused absences as well as sports physical exams.