Care Alliance to Convert to Electronic Medical Records

Care Alliance is the leading provider of primary health care and dental services to individuals living in extreme poverty in Cleveland. As a result, Care Alliance continually experiences a higher demand for services than what we are able to meet.

Nationally, Community Health Centers save taxpayers an estimated $24 billion annually through their health care delivery model: reducing costly hospital emergency room visits through preventative care, managing chronic disease and by providing culturally competent care to individuals who are low income and marginalized within society.

To continue to keep our costs low, and our quality high, Care Alliance is proud to report on our conversion from a paper medical record system to an electronic health record system (EHR). The installment of Electronic Health Records will allow us to increase our internal capacity to meet the ever changing and rising needs of our patients.

EHR includes Electronic Medical Records (EMR), Electronic Dental Records (EDR) and a Practice Management System. These new systems will improve health outcomes for Care Alliance patients; internal efficiencies and our ability to communicate with other service providers throughout Cleveland. EHR will also allow us to cut down on costs because it will eliminate the need to perform duplicate tests and screenings.

The chart below shows the steps Care Alliance has taken in preparation for our EMR Go-Live date, June 14th, 2011. We are currently on step 4: testing and training, training, training. The EDR Go-Live date is TBD.

Each current or future Care Alliance patient will benefit from Electronic Health Records through faster check-in, added provider knowledge of screenings, immunizations and tests, or the ability to transmit records to local hospital systems with just the click of a button. All patients will be touched by EHR.