About the Department of Medicine

Since 1962, Harlem Hospital Center has been affiliated with the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S) under an agreement with the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation. All attending physicians have academic appointments on the Columbia faculty, and Harlem Hospital Center's Department of Medicine serves as one of the three main teaching units of VP&S. All facilities of the University are available to Harlem's house officers.

Internal medicine residents at Harlem Hospital also have complete access to Columbia University's Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library. The library has a large number of journals, medical textbooks, and other databases that can be accessed online with a Columbia UNI.

EMR

Harlem Hospital Center has one of the most advanced electronic medical records developed by MISys Healthcare systems. Awarded the 2006 Davies Award of Excellence from the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) for our successful transition from paper to digital patient records.

Currently, all patient notes, consultation records, medication prescriptions, procedures, and orders, as well as documentation by all healthcare workers, including nursing, dietary, respiratory therapy and social work, are completed online. In addition, there are wireless computer carts available to allow charting of information at the bedside as well. This facilitates easy data retrieval and better patient care.

A hospital-wide PACS system allows healthcare providers to review all radiological procedures at specialized PACS systems located throughout the hospital. An intranet-based PACS system also allows viewing of digital radiology films at other workstations.

Support Services

Support services are available at Harlem Hospital to help and support residents and physicians care for their patients. These services include:

• Intravenous Line Support Teams
• Phlebotomy services
• EKG technicians
• Telemetry monitoring on all medical wards
• Online access to patient care resources such as UpToDate®, and STATRef!®