Area health departments to train for digital records

Several county health departments will be closed or offering partial services soon as part of an effort to train staff on new electronic health records software, according to Cape Girardeau County officials.

Jane Wernsman, director of the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center, said 14 county public health departments jointly applied for and received a grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health to purchase the software, and Cape Girardeau is serving as lead agency.

The grant totaled $743,000 over three years, and provides for purchase, training and implementation of the system in each county, Wernsman added.

�For 14 local public agencies, counties, to go together and collaborate on a project like this is pretty significant,� Wernsman said. �I think it shows the spirit of local public health in Southeast Missouri, that we do work together to improve, not just on the county level but the regional level as well, for the public.�

The software has been purchased, and the next step is training. Counties have divided into groups for training class size, but when staff members are in training, they�re not staffing their respective offices, so several counties are offering limited services, or might temporarily close, Wernsman said.

The Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center will provide only WIC and Environmental Health services Friday all day, and Monday morning, with regular services resuming at 1 p.m. Monday, according to a news release.

Wernsman thanked county residents for their patience during the trainings, adding the effort will be well worth the inconvenience.

Only a few counties in Southeast Missouri have electronic health records, and that�s an issue, Wernsman said by phone Tuesday.

Paper records are not as efficient as electronic records, Wernsman said.

�It�s not just being able to purchase, train and implement, but the end outcome of all of this is, the 14 public health agencies will be able to increase revenue because of better record-keeping ability and a more streamlined way to capture insurance reimbursements, Medicare and Medicaid information,� Wernsman said. �Over time, this will hopefully increase our revenue into those local county health departments.�

Traditionally, Wernsman explained, county public health departments are able to provide services based on the portion they receive of local property tax assessments, state and/or federal grants.

�We know with the changing scene of health care, we have just had to become more creative, more proactive in securing funds,� Wernsman said.

Project coordinator Liz House said many counties are seeing another benefit: potentially being able to expand some service areas to the public.

�There will be better reporting from our end, so we know exactly how much we�re doing for what service,� House said, and demographic information will also help bring accuracy to the department�s services.

Being able to refer a patient to another program based on chart information will become more streamlined, too, House said.

�It�s an excellent opportunity for us to have firsthand data based on the county�s population,� Wernsman added. �I�ll be able to see more quickly, what are we servicing in Cape Girardeau County? What do we need based on what we�re serving demographically? And interpretation of that data � it all takes trainings.�

According to the release, participating counties are Bollinger, Butler, Cape Girardeau, Dunklin, Iron, New Madrid, Mississippi, Pemiscot, Ripley, St. Francois, Ste. Genevieve, Scott, Stoddard and Washington.

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

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