If there’s a company that recognizes a bright idea, it’s General Electric. So when they heard that Sound Family Medicine had used GE’s Centricity Digital Health Record System to improve diastolic blood pressure control in our hypertensive patients, they were so impressed that they gave us an award.

What’s the GE Centricity system? In its most basic use, it’s a computerized medical records system linked to all three of Sound Family Medicine’s locations. That alone makes it a powerful tool. Care providers can immediately access a patient’s full record whether the patient is seeing his usual doctor, or a different provider at any of the SFM offices.

But we’ve been able to do a lot more than that with it. The traditional system of charting and recording a patient’s symptoms, diagnoses and treatments in a paper file makes it difficult for physicians to get a handle on the bigger picture. But, by using the Centricity system, our physicians can easily search the database for patients who will benefit from additional care.

Case in point: Last summer, SFM used the Centricity system to search for patients with recent diastolic readings above recommended levels. If left unchecked high blood pressure can lead to heart attacks or strokes. The clinic was able to follow up with these patients and provide advice that helped them achieve better blood pressure control. We were able to reduce the number of blood-pressure patients with less than ideal diastolic blood pressure control by 20 percent.

“When we purchased and started using our EMR (electronic medical records), we anticipated the time when we could use this tool to more closely monitor our patients for ways to improve their health. We are really excited that we are now able to not only provide an accurate and timely record of patient care, but to help us help our patients achieve better long-term control of medical problems like high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol. We expect that we will be able to help our patients lead longer and healthier lives using this information management technology,” said Dr. Ed Pullen, medical director for Sound Family Medicine.

SFM also participates in the Medical Quality Improvement Consortium (MQIC) a nation-wide collaborative group of over 3,500 physicians using the GE Centricity Digital Health Record System focused on measuring and improving patient care. MQIC allows the practice to compare their own record of outcomes with other health care providers, and to translate their findings into better patient care. It was the participation in this group that led to the presentation of the prestigious Excellence Award in Quality Improvement for 2005 to Sound Family Medicine.