“CooperCare Link allows physicians to electronically view their patients’Cooper medical records, including their test and lab results, in real time,” explains Raymond L. Baraldi, Jr., MD, Interim Chief Medical Officer at Cooper University Health Care. “Users can schedule a patient appointment with a Cooper physician, and monitor their patients throughout their time at Cooper including registration, admission, discharge and follow-up. Physicians can order outpatient lab or imaging studies at Cooper, and communicate with Cooper physicians via a secure messaging function.They can also choose to receive notifications when their patient arrives at Cooper’s ED or Urgent Care Center, or is admitted to the hospital.”
“By making all relevant patient information available in one conveniently accessible and secure place, CooperCare Link streamlines communication between Cooper physicians and our clinical partners in the community,” Dr. Baraldi adds.“It leverages technology to ensure that all providers are, quite literally, on the same page when it comes to the care of their shared patients, and it makes it faster and easier than sending and receiving faxes.”
To ensure CooperCare Link meets the needs of its users, Cooper enlisted ten non-Cooper physician offices in South Jersey as pilot sites when developing CooperCare Link. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive. For example, when one of Dr. Cathleen Finan’s patients was seen at Cooper’s Urgent Care Center in Cherry Hill over the weekend, Dr. Finan immediately received a notification in her email. “I logged into CooperCare Link, reviewed the patient’s chart, had my office manager print out the after visit summary and attached it to the patient’s chart. I was completely up to speed when the patient arrived in my office the following week,” Dr. Finan explained. “It was exactly the way medicine should be practiced.”
Dr. Lara Bruneau, a Family Medicine physician in Mount Laurel, NJ,states “It is comforting to know I have the ability to track my patient’scare at Cooper, know which Cooper physicians are treating them, and have a means by which to communicate with the physicians.It helps improve the continuity of care for the patient.”
“CooperCare Link has been fully vetted by Cooper’s legal team and chief privacy officer”, Anthony J. Mazzarelli, MD, JD, Cooper’s Senior V P of Operations/Deputy CMO points out, stressing that all appropriate HIPA A legal requirements have been addressed.
“With the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and the emergence of accountable care organizations (ACOs), the healthcare terrain is changing,” Dr. Mazzarelli adds, “and communication among providers becomes more important than ever.”
“We’re committed to staying on the leading edge and leveraging technology tools that improve this communication and, ultimately, enhance patient care,” Dr. Mazzarelli states.“CooperCare Link is one of these tools.”