Medical Records Technology Helps With Drug Recall

SOURCE: The Monitor

When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a recall on the prescription painkiller Darvocet due to heart-related side effects, the use of medical technology saved Dr. Juan Salazar’s nurses countless hours trying to identify his patients on the drug.

Salazar implemented electronic medical records in his clinic on East Nolana Avenue some 14 months ago in advance of federal government guidelines that aim to put the nation’s health care providers on computerized records by 2015. So when the Darvocet recall was issued in late November, Salazar’s staff could use his clinic’s computerized database to quickly identify more than 50 patients on the prescription.

“We got on the computer, pulled data that showed all the patients we prescribed the Darvocet, and it gave us all their phone numbers” to notify them of the recall, Salazar said. “Without (electronic medical records), we would have to go manually through all of my paper charts, which would have been impossible. It would have taken several people and lots of manpower hours to do so.”

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