A lot has been written lately about the benefits of electronic medical records, or EMRs for short. But it’s when you see them in action that the real-life impact can start to sink in. More than replace a doctor’s paper chart, these systems check for drug interactions, flag health protocols when it comes to procedures and health maintenance, and they track a patient’s condition over time. But as the doctors at the 10 locations of Collier Health Services in the Naples, Florida area note, GE’s Centricity EMRs are also allowing their patient population, many of whom are migrant farm workers, to access the centers’ care from multiple locations. Says Dr. Jerry Williamson, Collier’s chief medical officer: “We can now see patients in any of the offices just by bringing up their chart on the electronic medical record. Previously that was not possible.”


While the health benefits of EMRs, which are part of GE’s healthymagination business strategy, are many — they also have other extremely practical benefits for patients. For example, Collier electronically transmits prescriptions directly to pharmacies, which reduces wait-time dramatically. Dr. Brandon Savage, GE’s chief medical officer, recently wrote an article for Forbes magazine that not only describes the immediate benefits of digitizing medical records, such as faster prescriptions, but imagines the ripple effect of positive results that will happen down the road. Check it out by clicking here.

And Forbes also neatly sums up the benefits of EMRs in their story, “Health Care’s Cure: Electronic Records.”

* Learn how EMRs can consolidate your medical history
* Learn how EMRs can help keep all of your healthcare providers in contact
* Learn how EMRs can help doctors deliver the right type of care
* Read a story about GE’s program to speed adoption of EMRs
* Read about EMRs being used in a pilot program with the CDC
* Watch more videos at healthymagination.com
* Learn more about GE Healthcare
* Read about our donation of neonatal medical equipment in the UK
* Read GE Reports’ coverage of the healthymagination launch
* Read GE Reports’ story about our Health Advisory Board
* Read about our healthymagination work in Bangladesh
* Learn more about the partnership with Grameen Healthcare Trust
* Learn about our work in Cambodia
* Read our story about GE’s localized healthcare technology breakthroughs going global