?Dear Richard,
Thank you — this is exactly the kind of hard-won, practical counsel I had hoped this conversation might surface, and I am grateful you took the time. The parallel-records caution, your point that staff training is the real work, and your insistence on involving patients from the outset all ring true, and I will read the Pontefract and Wilson paper with interest.
Your advice is especially timely for us. Somos Amigos runs a free primary-care and dental clinic serving 32 rural communities in the Dominican Republic, and we are weighing an electronic record now — made more pressing by a significant increase in patient numbers we expect soon. We have relied on paper so far, and we feel its limits most in exactly the places you name: continuity of care, finding and correcting errors, and keeping track of who is due for follow-up.
What we are looking for may be a little unusual, and I would value your thoughts. Because we are a full dental clinic as well as a medical one, we would like a record that carries both medical and dental components, and that can also accommodate laboratory and pharmacy modules — ideally in one integrated system rather than several that do not speak to one another. If you know of systems that manage that combination, particularly ones suited to low-resource settings, I would be most grateful for any leads.
Thank you again for your generosity in writing, and for the reminder that a stitch in time saves nine — we would far rather get this right at the outset than unpick it later.
With best wishes,
fb
Frank Brightwell
Founder and Executive Director
Somos Amigos Medical Missions
Candid Profile
HIFA profile: Frank Brightwell is Executive Director at Somos Amigos Medical Missions, in the United States. Email: frank AT somosamigos.org