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Lack
of Access
One of the biggest challenges to the delivery of quality prenatal care
is the lack of access to paper prenatal records by providers - just when
they need it most. Providers in any one of a number of locations where
a pregnant patient may present for care, even the patient’s own
providers, will many times have no information about the patient because
the paper record is likely to be locked up somewhere else, especially
on nights and weekends. It is an everyday occurrence that L & D
nurses and physicians have no information whatsoever on patients who present
in premature labor because the copy of the prenatal record (usually sent
over at 36 weeks) hasn’t yet arrived. A premise
of care in the 21st century is that clinicians must have the right information
at the right time and at the right place
Processes put in place by prenatal providers to compensate
for this lack of access with paper records make things even worse. The
practice of copying the prenatal record at various pregnancy milestones
and sending those copies to the hospital introduces more chances for medical
error. The sound theory behind this obsolete practice is that even dated
information is better than none. However, besides being labor-intensive
(and expensive), this process deliberately introduces multiple copies
of dated records circulating between the office and the hospital. It is
quite easy to imagine scenarios where a patient might present at a hospital
and be treated incorrectly based on old, outdated or illegible information.
Anytime Access
eNATAL solves the prenatal record access problem
by allowing providers to view the complete and most current prenatal record
from any location, anywhere in the world, from wherever there is an Internet
connection. This connection could be made
at a satellite office across town, in the local emergency room, at the
doctor’s home, or while at a conference or meeting. The patient’s
provider, anyone in the same provider group, or the local labor and delivery
staff can simultaneously sign on to eNATAL and view the complete prenatal
record (based on their role and security privileges). |
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