Physicians Implement Open Source EMR
May 11th, 22:45 UTC
OpenEMR, an open source electronic medical record ("EMR") and practice management application is adopted by two medical clinics San Diego, California - May 10, 2004 - OpenEMR, an open source electronic medical record ("EMR") and practice management application is adopted by two medical clinics, while three additional medical practices announce pilot programs toward an implementation of the most popular open source EMR and practice management application.
Physicians and staff in North Carolina and California are improving care and administrative processes with OpenEMR, an open source application with integrated practice management and electronic medical records. "We have already let go 3 transcriptionists ($40,000 on annual budget). Our paper and toner costs have dropped about 40%. Our filing is all caught up and 'the chart hunt' has improved by about 95%. The staff were immediately impressed with the improved communication in the office. I have been printing office notes for our Urgent Care patients - letting them take a printed note to their primary care physician" comments Dr. Bowen, an OpenEMR user in North Carolina.
M. Sharifi, the technical lead at a southern California Clinic, notes "The physicians use Tablet PCs with Wi-Fi to connect to the server which runs the OpenEMR 2.5.0 software... Each day the physicians and the medical assistants use OpenEMR through their web browser on their workstations. The experience we have with OpenEMR is truly wonderful, not only that it is FREE , we can make any custom changes we want as it is OpenSource... So far all the features OpenEMR has been working for us without any problems, we love the new Px feature...."
Several clinics are running a pilot project with OpenEMR including a 12 provider Women's Health Care clinic in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a 10 provider clinic in San Diego and a Free Clinic and Homeless Shelter in Virginia. All of these users, and their success or pilot program stories can be found in the User Forum at OpenEMR.
OpenEMR is an open source application licensed under the GNU General Public License, with no user or license fees. A full download of the software for use on a Linux server can be found in the Downloads section at OpenEMR. Currently OpenEMR is developed only for the Linux platform, but as an open source application, OpenEMR can be customized for your clinic to run on the operating system of your choice and integrated with your existing applications.
OpenEMR offers many support and customization options absent with proprietary applications. OpenEMR can be implemented by your internal staff, your local consultants or by the core OpenEMR development team, the Pennington Firm. There are no mandatory support obligations, and OpenEMR offers users the freedom to obtain competitive bids for their maintenance and support, a feature absent in all proprietary EMR applications.
(Submitted by Walt Pennington of Pennington Firm)
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