Agenda - 11-13-2007-e - Laserfiche WebLink

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Technology & Equipment Orange County Health Department November 13, 2007 The development of health care technology over the past 10 years has far outstripped the .ability of Orange County Health Department to keep at a basic level of adequacy. This is true for ail aspects of service delivery as well as data analysis in order to inform good policy development. Clinical Technology • The NC Division of Public Health will be completing the customization of a new vendor purchased statewide software for all clinical and home visiting services. This software has an individual electronic health record for each patient. While not a requirement, maximizing the effectiveness for patients and providers will require mobile PC "tablets" or a work station in each exam and interview room. • At its fullest and highest use it will require the ability to affix and read bar codes for services that would automatically be tagged to a patient record and then billed. • The logical expansion is the purchase of avendor-supported add-on for a true electronic medical record, facilitating the transfer of referral information for patients. • The standard for most dental offices, including the UNC School of Dentistry is the provision of digital dental x-rays that are available to the,dentist chairside and become an easily integrated part of the patient's dental record. This would require software purchase and equipment for each operatory. Field Based Services • Home visiting staff are restricted from taking paper patient records into the field. Mobile technology would allow access to "last progress notes" and enable the staff member to update notes in field and begin the service coordination process more quickly. Linking to appointment vacancies could improve service provision. • Software that enables Environmental Health Specialists (EHS) conducting institutional inspections in the Food and Lodging Program would allow the fmal "grade sheet" to be printed for the establishment. It would allow more timely uploading to the state and to the website for the public. 30 North Carolina counties have already purchased this vendor- supported software. It would also provide more information on a historical basis for better education of the food service managers. • EHS field staff still need vendor-supported software for the on-site wastewater, well and WIMP programs to conduct permitting operations in the field and then download and process the information back in the office. Data Analysis and Management • Need to create GIS layers & utilize other data analysis tools in order to better target service delivery & analyze where the department needs to concentrate efforts. Equipment • This is a particular need in the dental clinical program, where our equipment is aged beyond use. There is no panorex x-ray machine in either clinic (a standard of care). There are too few of the same kind of handpieces, making sterilization twice a day a necessity. Equipment is replaced only when broken and then cannot be repaired because there are no parts.