The electronic medical recording system, or EMR, was launched at the hospital yesterday (8th).

Nurse Unit Manager Darren Hawkes said laptop computers had replaced paper charts, enabling patient information to be accessed quickly and easily throughout the whole of the North Coast Area Health Service.

Where once you would have seen a nurse or doctor writing information on a clipboard at a patient’s bedside, there would now be a laptop on a trolley.

Doctors and nurses at the hospital had spent the past month familiarising themselves with the new system and its programs.

Mr Hawkes said the new electronic system was the next step to one day making the hospital completely paper-free.

It was part of the health system’s move to take advantage of the digital technologies available.

Mr Hawkes said digital X-raying would be the next change – this would enable specialists in Coffs Harbour to view X-rays from Macksville within hours of them being taken, instead of days, which was the case presently.

He said the changes were aimed to maximise patient care and increase hospital efficiency.