New medical record system in Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Hong Kong

During the 1980's, the medical record problems had been identified and it was not until 1991 that Queen Elizabeth Hospital was chosen to be the pilot hospital for the development of a new medical record management system for the Hospital Authority hospitals. The new medical records system was implemented in Queen Elizabeth Hospital in December, 1993. Six month after implementation, a pre-implementation and post-implementation review of the medical record services were conducted to compare the results of the new and old system. The results showed that there were significant improvements in the record retrieval and record integrity in the new system. New medical record services such as the delivery of readmission records to the ward, filing of medical records forms in pre-defined order and filing of loose sheets in the relevant hospital notes are able to facilitate the efficient, effective and complete access to patient information. The support and cooperation of the hospital staff are crucial to the success of the new system. Continuous review and improvement of the new system is essential in order to obtain the best results.