Making a Seamless Move from the Emergency Room to the Primary Care Provider

Justin McMartin is a product manager at Surescripts who has been on the ''other side'' of the network so to speak. As a patient in acute pain visiting a rural emergency room in the wee hours of the night, McMartin reflected on the points along his care journey where seamless information exchange between the ER and his primary care provider was critical.

''What was great about it was that because of the interoperability that these health systems have between each other, they were able to exchange all of my records. My primary care provider was able to see right when I saw him all of the reports and lab results and tests that occurred in the emergency room just the week prior and was able to then order appropriate care for me moving forward.''

Despite the fact that McMartin received care from three different health organizations, not a single piece of paper was exchanged, nor was he required to recite his medical history multiple times to multiple people.

It’s a seemingly simple notion, but the impact on patients when paper records are in play and information isn’t flowing between care locations is very real.

''There's obviously processes for getting a piece of paper from one organization to another, whether it’s the patient carrying it or faxes and those types of things. But it definitely wouldn’t have been as efficient. Even working in the system, it was surprising to see how well it all works sometimes.''

Watch more stories from our series, Inside the Patient Experience, and visit Intelligence in Action to see how bringing patient insights into focus makes appropriate, timely and cost-effective care possible.