Clinical Quality Improvement

In partnership with The Partnership for Access to Healthcare (PATH), Steps is creating and implementing an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system which provides efficient clinical health operations in addition to support, training and quality improvement.

The EMR system provides an efficient internal communication channel, enabling a patient-centric approach to information access. Patient demographic information, paper transcribed reports, laboratory results, pathology reports, radiology reports and cardiology reports are all available on the system. This easy-to-use interface minimizes redundant registrations and duplicate medical records.

Other benefits include:

• Provides basic information to support care decisions in the absence of a paper medical record
• Reduces performance of redundant tests
• Reduces dependence on shadow charts
• Potentially enhances timeliness and quality of care and reduces medical errors and health care costs

Steps and PATH have successfully implemented EMR systems at:

• Daughters of Charity Health Center, Bywater
• Daughters of Charity Health Center, Causeway

Steps and PATH are also building clinical and operational capacity at 12 other sites:

• New Orleans Health Department (NOHD), Algiers
• Excelth, Inc., Baton Rouge
• St. Thomas Health Center
• Excelth, Inc., New Orleans
• Daughters of Charity Services, Uptown
• Common Ground Health Clinic, New Orleans
• Jefferson Community Health Center
• Tulane University Community Health Center
• St. Charles Community Health Center
• Drop-In clinics
• Mobile Sites
• LSU school-based sites