“Parents may not be aware of the danger posed by leaving medications where young children can reach them. In recent years, the number of accidental overdoses in young children has increased by 20 percent,” said Dan Budnitz, M.D., M.P.H., director of CDC’s Medication Safety Program. “A few simple steps – done every time – can protect our children.”

To protect children, parents and caregivers can:

• Pick a place children cannot reach.  Find a storage place too high for a child to reach or see.  Any medicine or vitamin can cause harm if taken the wrong way, even medicine you buy without a prescription.
• Put medicines and vitamins away every time you use them.  Never leave medicines or vitamins out on a kitchen counter or at a sick child’s bedside, even if you have to give the medicine again in a few hours. 
• Hear the click.  Make sure the safety cap is locked. If the medicine has a locking cap that turns, twist it until the click is heard.
• Teach children about medicine safety. Never tell children that medicine is candy to get them to take it, even if the child does not like to take his or her medicine.
• Tell guests about medicine safety. Ask houseguests and visitors to keep purses, bags, or coats that have medicines in them up and away and out of sight when they are visiting.
• Be prepared in case of emergency. Program the poison control number into home and cell phones (1–800–222–1222).

  Information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website, 2012

An EMR is an electronic version of the old paper patient chart that contains your medical history and documentation regarding the care you have received.  EMRs offer many patient benefits, such as:

 Quality:  Electronic records are more efficient than paper because it makes the files easier to read, more accessible and improves the overall quality of patient files for diagnosis, patient history and research.

 Convenience:  When you get lab work, X-ray or scans done, the results or images are electronically saved in your EMR which makes it easier to find information.

 Security:  Paper files can be lost as in case of fire or flood, but EMRs are electronically stored securely in our EMR system with backup file protection.  There is additional protection of your medical information because it is password protected with multiple levels of security.  Every time someone enters your electronic record, there is documentation electronically generated showing who looked at your record.

 Portability:  Your records can be given to you electronically if you request them or in the future we will be able to send them electronically to any hospital or physician using encryption to further protect your privacy.