Portland, Ore. — The benefits of a “medical home” for patients are increasingly recognized as promoting more timely, efficient and accurate health care while streamlining use of medical services. A $100,000 Regence Foundation grant to the Virginia Garcia Memorial Foundation will help fund an electronic version of a medical home for thousands of Oregon residents.

“This is the future for all of us: Records of our diagnosis and treatment by all providers, centralized and portable,” said Mike Alexander, Regence Foundation board chair. “Electronic health records are essential because they optimize patient care and outcomes and minimize mistakes, delays and duplication of services.”

The Regence Foundation’s grant – one of three technology grants awarded in July – will help fund the purchase of hardware and software to support the electronic medical records of patients at Virginia Garcia clinics, which can then be accessed by any clinic in Our Community Health Information Network (OCHIN).

The electronic health records (EHRs) will include such information as diagnoses, allergies, lab test results and medications. It will also allow providers to enter and store orders for prescriptions, tests and other services in a computer-based system that enhances legibility. This tool enables all providers to coordinate and deliver care in a more timely and efficient way, resulting in increased patient safety and effectiveness of care.

Virginia Garcia’s mission is to provide high quality, comprehensive and culturally appropriate primary health care to the communities of Washington and Yamhill Counties with a special emphasis on migrant and seasonal farmworkers and others with barriers to care.

“While the majority of Virginia Garcia patients are Latino, all patients with barriers to receiving health care are welcome here,” says Diana Walker, the executive director of the Virginia Garcia Memorial Foundation. “With well documented ethnic, racial and socioeconomic disparities in health care delivery, EHRs are another step forward in helping us to reduce gaps in care for our patient populations. This is a very exciting opportunity and we are very grateful to the Regence Foundation for their investment in the lives of our patients.”