Implementation of an electronic medical record system in a pediatric psychopharmacology program

The design, implementation, and utilization of an electronic medical record system (EMRS) in a pediatric psychopharmacology clinic is described. The E MRS is a relational database with information entered directly by the clini cian during a patient visit. It has been used during more than 2590 patient visits with 805 patients. Complete clinical documentation and simultaneous data entry as well as computer generated prescriptions for the patient wer e accomplished 75% of the time within a 20-min medication management sessio n. One hundred consecutive parents of patients were asked to fill out a fiv e-question survey to begin to assess the impact of the application. Of the 87 parents who responded, all (100%) noted that the doctor paid attention t o their concerns. Between ss and 90% of the parents reported that the use o f the computer is a 'good' thing, made it easier to work with the doctor, a nd that they understood why the computer was being used. The findings suppo rt that the development and implementation of an EMRS with direct clinician information entry within pediatric psychopharmacology clinic, is feasible. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.