On the Cutting Edge: Latest Technology Available at EBNHC

A screenshot of East Boston Neighborhood Health Center’s “EBNHC My Chart”, a new mobile App that allows patients to access parts of their medical records.

A screenshot of East Boston Neighborhood
Health Center’s “EBNHC My Chart”,
a new mobile App that allows patients to
access parts of their medical records.

It has been a little over a year since Manny Lopes has taken over the reins from Jack Cradock as the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center’s (EBNHC) CEO.

Over the past year Lopes has been focusing his efforts on getting the newest and best technology at the Health Center to streamline patient experience.

In particular, EBNHC is about to launch “EBNHC My Chart”, a very sophisticated mobile App that allows patients to access parts of their medical records including some real value added features like school physical forms, lab results and reordering prescriptions.

“This is a great app that will allow users to get access to test results, communicate with doctor, print out physical forms and medical records,” said Lopes. “It will also give test results after a visit within 72 hours through the apps. The app will also allow parents to get updated immunizations information for their kids and just send them right to schools or daycares. What it means for us is less calls and less tasks and allows us to focus on patient care.”

Lopes said a successful computer version of the app was launched a few years ago but in this day in age mobile apps are the future.

“We’ve done a small campaign and we are currently planning a larger campaign and do a big push so you will see folks in our waiting areas encouraging people to sign up for the app and also helping our patients sign up for the app.”

Through the app, EBNHC patients can also drop off prescriptions at the EBNHC pharmacies at either Gove Street or Maverick Square and receive a text through the app once the prescription is ready.

EBNHC is also utilizing robotic technology in our Radiology Department and Pharmacy that has massively improved accuracy well above industry norms.  The EBNHC’s first pharmacy at the Gove Street clinic fills about 30,000 prescriptions a month with an error rate of .003 percent, a figure that is unheard of in the medical community. With the Health Center pharmacies’ state-of-the-art robotic technology and skilled staff EBNHC has one of the best quality ratings in the country.

“The robotic technology and the pharmacies cuts down on errors and helps pharmacists and technicians make judgment calls when filling prescriptions. By making fewer errors there is less of a need for emergency room and doctors visits thus cutting medical care costs.

Lopes said the new pharmacy at Maverick Street would fill approximately 7,000-10,000 prescriptions per month at the new location.

Also Lopes said the new monitoring systems in EBNHC’s Emergency Department has the Health center reporting the lowest emergency room waiting room times in Boston. EBNHC’s emergency room is one of the top five busiest in the city.

“The monitoring technology allows us to see where the choke points are and add triages or more staff at points along a patients visit,” said Lopes. “But the average emergency room visit here is one hour and twenty minutes. That time includes the time your are greeted to check in to the time you get your vitals checked by a nurse to getting a room to being seen by a doctor, having all your tests done, results and diagnosis.”

Under Lopes leadership, EBNHC was one of the first Health Centers to adopt EPIC as its electronic medical records system–years later, Boston Medical Center, Partners and Cambridge Health Alliance all following suit.

“We were one of the first because we knew then that the industry would be moving towards more electronic systems so we were ahead of the curve back in the late 1990s,” said Lopes.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *