For patients, it is more convenient and ensures greater safety. As more clinics join the EPIC system, patients will have less paperwork to fill out with each visit. In addition, when multiple providers work from the same database, the risk of duplication of prescriptions or services, or the possibility of harmful drug interactions, is reduced. Important medical history information is also more readily available if emergency treatment is required.

For physicians and hospitals more medical information is available in one location, making that information more likely to be up to date, more efficiently organized and more easily accessible. This reduces the risk of medical errors and improves the efficiency of care delivery.

Finally, having this information in an electronic database makes it easier to determine the cost of care in relation to its outcomes. This calculation is necessary to determine the true “value” of care and is a major factor in driving the spread of electronic medical records. The cost of healthcare cannot continue to rise at current rates. We all need to know if we are getting our money’s worth in healthcare, and EHR will help us determine that.

Dr. Greg Sherr will begin providing local neurosurgical consultation beginning in February, 2012, in both Monticello and Brainerd. He will see patients in Monticello at the New River Physician Clinic, and in Brainerd at the Essentia Health St. Joseph’s – Brainerd Clinic. For information regarding scheduling an appointment at either of these locations, visit our website’s locations page.

A new, inexpensive and potentially lifesaving technology.

Historically, physicians and nurses have relied on visual inspection of the size and reactivity of pupils to assess brain function following a head injury or any other condition which may cause brain swelling. While visual inspection of the pupils and their reaction to light stimulation provides important information, its reliability is affected by differences in the way individual caregivers interpret what they see. Recently, a small, hand-held device that measures and records pupil responses with pinpoint accuracy has been developed. About the size of a television remote, this device produces the same, consistently reliable readings regardless of who is operating it, thereby increasing the likelihood that subtle changes in pupillary response, which may signal serious or life threatening changes within the brain, are detected in time to prevent irreversible brain damage or even death.

The device is marketed by Neuroptics Inc. (http://www.neuroptics.com) The neurosurgeons at Central Minnesota Neurosciences, in partnership with the St. Cloud Hospital, are investigating the possibility that this exciting new technology has the potential to improve our existing practice. We will update you as more information becomes available.

A more in depth article on this story from the St. Cloud Times, author David Unze.
Download PDF: Tumor removed, life embraced: SCSU instructor’s survival strengthens outlook

Fox 9 News covers the story with Dr. Greg Sherr.

Jerrica Thiel hoped to spread seat belt message

ST. CLOUD, Minn. – 16-year-old Jerrica Thiel says she always, always wears her seatbelt. But one morning on her way to school earlier this month, she didn’t buckle up. The decision nearly killed her. She miraculously survived a highway speed head on crash.

She’s starting her long road back to a normal life, a life that was nearly taken 29 days ago when Jerrica was thrown out of the vehicle through the passenger window.

“I knew I was hurt real bad,” Thiel said. She had a fully collapsed lung and her L-2 vertebrae was shattered.

The 16-year-old was flown to saint cloud hospital for emergency surgery where she nearly died on the operating table.

“Unfortunately, her lung collapsed further during spinal surgery. We were no longer able to ventilate her,” said Dr. Greg Sherr, a trauma neurosurgeon.

Sherr was part of the medical team that first saved her life, and then went to work on her broken back.

“It was quite scary… I was literally pulling bones away from the spinal cord itself to relieve pressure,” he said.

Using new, state-of-the-art technology the fractured vertebrae was removed.. And replaced with a titanium insert plate and a set of screws to hold it all in place as bone grows back.

Amazingly, it’s expected Jerrica will one day return to the soccer field.

“if it had gone maybe another 2mm, she would have never walked again,” Sherr said.

Jerrica is expected to be released from the hospital any day now and hopes to spread the message to buckle up to other students, at least at her school.