CMS On-ramp Goes Live

“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.”

Dr Wong Chun-por,
Geriatric Medicine Specialist

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.

Convenience, Efficiency and Productivity

“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.

Benefits offered by the CMS On-ramp.

“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.

The CMS On-ramp allows doctors to view patients' medical records with a simple click.

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.”

The eHRSS can present huge benefits and potential.

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.

Dr Wong's view on eHR sharing.

Dr Wong Chun-por   Specialist in Geriatric Medicine     Chairman, Hong Kong Society of Medical Informatics   Chairman, HL7 Hong Kong   Founder, eHealth Consortium

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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