A comprehensive patient care system for the family practice

Family and Community Health Associates (FACHA) has incorporated an in-house, on-line computerized medical information system into a two-office, three-physician family practice medicine group. A Basic Four System 610 minicomputer is utilized to store all the medical, pharmaceutical, financial, and scheduling records. A SOAP-formated encounter form is used to collect the data. Five medical reports are printed prior to each patient encounter. Evaluations of the use and the benefits of this system are presented. A cost study, which calculated the cost of maintaining a computer-stored patient record, showed that a patient record could be updated and maintained for $1.32. A quality of care evaluation revealed that the preaudit of the computer-generated medical reports increased patient compliance to health maintenance suggestions. Another quality of care evaluation revealed that computer-generated flow charts did not significantly improve the diastolic blood pressure value of chronic hypertensive patients.