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“The Clinical Management System (CMS) On-ramp sets very high standards and specifications to ensure data quality and accuracy. It is rich in functionality and offers a great help to clinical operation and healthcare delivery, incomparable to other systems that I have used.”
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Dr Wong Chun-por,
Geriatric Medicine Specialist |
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Dr Wong Chun-por is among the first to use the CMS On-ramp, a turn-key system released by the Government in late 2014 to support clinics’ operating procedures and workflows. He said the system is highly satisfactory and offers a great deal of benefits.
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Convenience, Efficiency and Productivity |
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“A major improvement with the CMS On-ramp is of course automation and computerisation of the work process, offering benefits such as unprecedented convenience, increased efficiency and enhanced productivity,” said Dr Wong, a specialist in geriatric medicine who is dedicated to the development of the Electronic Health Record Sharing System (eHRSS) in Hong Kong.
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“To begin with, the shift from paper to digital record management means that time and effort have been significantly saved in finding patients’ clinical records. Hence, less resources are used to store the paper records,” he explained.
“What’s more, the CMS On-ramp is very rich in functionality. It has a lot of functions to help clinics organise things systematically and make management more efficient. For example, you can manage drug inventory more conveniently. You can generate reports and handle billing in an easy way. You can also monitor the patients’ records quickly,” he said.
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Benefits offered by the CMS On-ramp.
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The CMS On-ramp allows doctors to view patients' medical records with a simple click.
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Quality and Accurate Data for Decision Making
Dr Wong said the use of the CMS On-ramp has made comprehensive and precise data readily available for clinical decision making. “We can view a patient’s records of allergies, diagnoses and medications with a click and grasp a full picture of his or her health conditions,” he said.
He especially pointed out that a major difference between the CMS On-ramp and other similar systems is the standards for clinical data input. "More importantly, the CMS On-ramp has set high standards and precise specifications for users to follow. It will greatly improve data accuracy and reliability, ensuring a higher level of safety and healthcare quality,” he emphasised.
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Helpful to Geriatric Medicine |
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Dr Wong stressed that in geriatric medicine, the availability of quality and accurate clinical data is especially important, as elderly patients always have chronic and multiple illnesses, and are usually on multiple medications.
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“Some patients may have seven or eight illnesses, or take eight to ten different drugs at the same time. It would be good if we could know their medical and medication history in detail, as this would help us diagnose their problems, adjust their medications and provide continuing care in a more effective way,” he said.
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“In this respect, the Consultation function of the CMS On-ramp is well designed to facilitate users to input clinical details, prescribe medication and view consultation history. Everything is clear at one glance. We won’t miss any important information,” he added.
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Promoting the Use of CMS On-ramp |
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As the CMS On-ramp is a brand new system and yet to be widely used by healthcare providers (HCPs), Dr Wong believes that it should be further and extensively publicised to HCPs to let them know the potential benefits.
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“Organising more talks, seminars and experience sharing sessions, for example, will be good for the purpose. People have yet to learn how the system performs, not to mention that quite a lot of doctors are still not familiar with computers. Given time, the CMS On-ramp will be a success,” he said with confidence.
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Benefits and Potential of eHRSS |
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Noting that the CMS On-ramp can share patients’ clinical data with the eHRSS. Dr Wong agreed that there are significant merits in sharing electronic health records and he himself will not hesitate to join the eHRSS.
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“By sharing records, we can enhance public-private partnerships in delivering healthcare, at the same time helping patients save costs as duplicated medical tests and examinations can be avoided,” he said.
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Another great advantage with the eHRSS is that Hong Kong has the potential to build a comprehensive clinical data warehouse, Dr Wong added.
In explaining, he said, “The eHRSS is built on the basis of the Hospital Authority’s clinical management system which has already covered the clinical records of about 60% of the patients in Hong Kong. If the remaining 40% are also captured, Hong Kong will surpass other places in the world to become the first to have a truly territory-wide eHR database.”
Stressing that the data is very useful in many ways, Dr Wong said, “The Government can make use of the information to plan for disease prevention, healthcare development and resource allocation, as well as to make strategies for healthcare financing. De-identified data can be made available to universities for use in research to advance medical science.”
“On the last note, I understand that some doctors have reservations in joining the eHRSS. To me, a caring doctor would not mind sharing data or reading more clinical records of patients. It is afterall beneficial for patients’ well-being,” Dr Wong remarked.
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Dr Wong Chun-por
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Specialist in Geriatric Medicine
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Chairman, Hong Kong Society of Medical Informatics |
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Chairman, HL7 Hong Kong |
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Founder, eHealth Consortium |
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Getting CMS On-ramp
The CMS On-ramp is available to local HCPs free of charge. HCPs can obtain CMS On-ramp through designated eHR Service Providers. For more information, please refer to the eHR Office website. |
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The eHRSS can present huge benefits and potential.
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Dr Wong's view on eHR sharing.
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