Brown tours local facility, promotes electronic records

White Plains visit part of state effort on health

Friday, Dec. 4, 2009

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by EMILY BARNES Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, chats with medical assistants Dionne Adams, left, and Angie Graham during a tour of the Johns Hopkins Community Physicians at Charles County facility Thursday. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by EMILY BARNES Dr. Craig Jeschke, right, medical director and a primary care physician at the Johns Hopkins Community Physicians at Charles County facility in White Plains, explains to Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown how the center's electronic medical records system saves time and money for both patients and doctors during Brown's tour of the facility Thursday. Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by EMILY BARNES Dr. Craig Jeschke, left, office medical director and a primary care physician at the Johns Hopkins Community Physicians at Charles County facility in White Plains, shares a laugh with Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown during a Thursday tour of the part of the practice that is being expanded.

Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown dropped by a health care facility in White Plains on Thursday to learn more about an electronic medical records system set up in the practice that makes information about patients more readily available to doctors, hospitals and consultants.

Brown (D) included the Johns Hopkins Community Physicians at Charles County facility in the Fairview Center in his round of tours to 18 health care facilities throughout the state to learn more about how technology can improve patient care, said Ben Stutz, Brown's policy director.

The Hopkins center was the only medical facility Brown was scheduled to visit in Southern Maryland, he said.

Brown, who chairs the Maryland Health Quality and Cost Council and the Veterans Health Advisory Board, spent most of his time at the Hopkins facility learning about the electronic medical records system from Dr. Craig Jeschke, the center's medical director and one of the four primary care physicians who work at the center.

Jeschke said that having the system saves both patients and medical facilities money because information in the system includes tests that have been performed on patients at other facilities such as hospitals, eliminating a duplication of services in most cases.

After the demonstration of the system, Brown took a whirlwind tour of the facility.

"I'm very impressed with the system," he said before leaving the medical center. "It allows doctors to spend less time with paperwork and more time with patients."

The facility opened in 2007 and doctors see about 1,700 patients a month, said Mary Catherine VonGarlem, the center's practice administrator. More than half of the patients are retired military personnel and active duty family members, she said.

There are plans under way to expand the 4,222-square-foot facility, VonGarlem said, adding that the new addition will house a waiting area, three new family practice physicians, a full-time nurse and triage room.

With such a large practice, the Hopkins facility really needs to be able to access patient information quickly and the electronic medical records system fits the bill, VonGarlem said.

"It improves communication between providers, consultants and hospitals so patient information is readily available," she said. "It decreases the duplication of tests and costs and improves the continuity of care."

"This system will go a long way in driving down the costs of health care and is consistent with the efforts to reform health care," Brown said.

nmcconaty@somdnews.com