Our History
In 1992, Dr Cris Mandry, founder of an Emergency Physician Group and founding Program director of the LSU Emergency Medicine Residency program in Baton Rouge made his first attempt to improve patient care documentation in the emergency department. An electronic ED record was purchased and placed in one of his hospitals as a test. The application failed due to numerous deficiencies but Dr Mandry’s quest continued. Over the ensuing 10 years Dr Mandry and his group purchased and leased multiple “best product available” ED electronic medical records. While some were minimally adequate, all proved over time to have significant shortcomings, which limited their use and efficiency. Additionally, Dr Mandry found the software companies did not understand the complexity of emergency medicine nor were they supportive of improvements suggested by Dr Mandry and his physicians. That led to the decision to create their own record, a record that was complete and provided increased efficiency, increased patient safety and clinical pathways and was kept current through their own use of the record in their own emergency departments.
Dr. Mandry assembled a team of practicing emergency physicians, nurses and programmers. Calling on his own experience as a board certified Emergency Medicine Physician, he tasked the team with building a tool that would not only benefit physicians, nurses, and patient care, but also ensure that management and facility needs were also met
Dr Mandry’s vision for an ED Electronic Medical Record centered on the belief that physicians and nurses working together on the same patient need to see what others were doing. This integrated view of a patient’s care from the chart to the whiteboard allows clinicians to make informed, coordinated and timely decisions concerning patient care. The system provides efficient communication with the use of multiple visual indicators that show patient status, pending orders, required actions and as well as overall ED status at a glance
Today their electronic record, CMR for Complete Medical record, meets the needs of all of those involved with patient care in the emergency department, whether physician, nurse or administration. It has been successfully implemented in multiple emergency department settings from large regional medical centers to small rural departments as well as a rural health initiative that links multiple smaller emergency departments. The continued success of their record is maintained by their own personal use of the record. This allows for constant integration of new requirements, whether clinical or regulatory, and the improvement of patient care through evidence based algorithms and clinical pathways