Last fall the federal Health Resources and Services Administration awarded Coastal a $1,398,902 grant for a "High Impact" electronic medical record implementation project. Clark said Coastal has used the money to implement an integrated EMR system at all 7 clinics.

"We're approximately 75 percent implemented," Clark said. "The process should be complete by the end of September. Implementing an EMR is not really an IT project; it's a medical staff project. You're replacing a system that doctors are comfortable with, and you have to spend a lot of time with them."

Christine Maurice, Coastal's EMR project manager and clinical staff coordinator, spends almost all of her time with the CHC's medical staff. Maurice is responsible for EMR implementation at each clinic and provides training to physicians and staff members. She said it was challenging to convince physicians that an EMR would not slow down the care process.

"Once our physicians understood how to navigate the EMR and use the system to their advantage, they were sold," Maurice said. "I had to convince them that it was OK to take laptops into the examination room, but now they the tools to improve time management and do proper documentation."

The EMR at Coastal cannot currently interface with IT systems at local hospitals, although Maurice indicated that was an important goal that the CHC intended to achieve.

Coastal uses a HealthPort EMR and practice management system which includes clinical decision support tools, and chronic disease monitoring capabilities that Maurice says will greatly improve the healthcare provided to the vulnerable population that Coastal serves.

"Our patients' medical lives were destroyed by the storm," she said. "The EMR gives patients a safety net and they really understand that. In our experience, the benefits so greatly outweigh the negatives."