Electronic medical record - a coordination strategy between the primary and secondary healthcare in the city of Belo Horizonte

Abstract

Health care management-related problems are seen as one of the greatest challenges when organizing health systems because of the fragmentation of the care network and the lack of communication among providers. Evaluative research was conducted in two regional health centers in Belo Horizonte to examine the use of electronic medical records and their contribution to continuity and coordination of care between primary and specialized care. The regional health centers showed different implementation times for the electronic medical records shared among primary care professionals and experts from the Centers of Medical Specialties (Centros de Especialidades Médicas - CEM), as measured by the time taken for the records to become available to the cardiologist. Surveys were distributed among Family Health (Saúde da Família - SF) doctors in the regional health centers (69), and interviews were conducted with the cardiologists at the CEMs (6). The results revealed that electronic medical records were used by all of the SF doctors and by most of the cardiologists. Two-thirds of the SF doctors from the regional centers who had shared medical records for over a year reported that the using electronic medical records to share records with the cardiologists was an improvement in care management. They stated that it improved receipt of information by the CEM cardiologists and reduced duplication of diagnosis support tests. Research confirms that the use of electronic medical records may contribute to information continuity and care management.