Development and utilization of paperless medical records: a unique approach

The purpose of this article is to describe the development and utilization of a unique paperless medical record system in a large multispeciality group practice setting. The Scott and White integrated health care delivery system provides care over a 34-county area in Central Texas. Since 1988, clinicians at Scott and White have developed a text-based, content-searchable electronic medical record system known as EMRx. This system provides a single clinical data repository that allows patient care activities and aggregate data analyses to occur by using the same set of data on a daily basis. Use of this approach has led to the aggregation of over 9.8 million clinical documents since 1994. Over 1,845 health care providers used the system during May 2000 for direct patient care; 866,114 patient records have been accessed since January 1, 1999 to answer questions related to patient care, quality assurance, outcomes research, and accreditation.