title: Implementation and Impact of Psychiatric Electronic Medical Records in a Public Medical Center.
abstract: This study describes the efforts to implement electronic charting in a large public psychiatric outpatient clinic with the objective to improve clinical documentation.
  
  
  
  Data made available through the quality review process are utilized to evaluate the effectiveness of the electronic intervention. The study is a comparative analysis of the three years before and three years after the point of implementation of electronic charting.
  
  
  
  Statistical analyses indicate significant findings (p<.0001) in the comparison of the periods before and after implementation in terms of note completion and documentation of medication management, supporting the study's hypothesis that electronic intervention will improve the quality of clinical documentation.
  
  
  
  This study contributes new knowledge to improve our understanding of the barriers and benefits of implementing and maintaining electronic charting in mental health settings.
authors.affiliation: Clinical psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA.
authors.forename: Anna Q
authors.initials: AQ
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA.
authors.forename: Frank X
authors.initials: FX
authors.lastname: Acosta
mesh_terms: D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D011570:Psychiatry; D058996:Quality Improvement; D062606:Tertiary Care Centers
keywords: electronic charting; electronic medical records; psychiatric electronic medical records; quality improvement