Healthcare - Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula

Dr. Doug Sunde, a plastic surgeon and hand surgeon in Monterey, was among the first
doctors in the area to bring PHIL into his office, and he introduced his patient, Marilyn
Byrne, to the system.
Like most physicians, Sunde used to write out prescriptions by hand, then send his
patients off with them to their pharmacies, where they would wait around patiently
(or not so much) for the prescriptions to be filled.
Not any more.
“Now I just hop on PHIL and ‘e-scribe,’ ” Sunde says. “It’s faster and reduces
opportunities for mistakes.”
Plus there’s an excellent chance that the “e-scription” will be ready and waiting by
the time the patient arrives to pick it up.
Not only does PHIL enable physicians to send e-scriptions to pharmacies, it enables them
to exchange e-mails with their patients. And PHIL-mail is encrypted to ensure privacy.
Lead medical assistant Raelene Salgado is in charge of all things PHIL in the Monterey
office of primary care physician Dr. Sharon Wesley, an early adopter of electronic
technology in her practice.
“I’m always online,” Salgado says. “I see e-mail from patients as soon as it comes in,
and I can usually respond very quickly.”
E-mail is especially handy, Salgado says, when there’s a time-sensitive message she
needs to get out to a large group of patients, such as all the women the practice sees,
or everyone in a particular age group. Making separate phone calls is time-consuming.
Each call takes about five minutes when she’s lucky enough to reach someone on the
first try, and much longer if there is a protracted game of telephone tag. Alternatively,
she can send e-mail to each of the affected patients in one fell swoop, which will take
less than five minutes total.
DR. DOuG SuNDE, A MONTEREY PLASTIC
SuRGEON AND HAND SuRGEON, HAS
INTEGRATED PHIL INTO HIS PRACTICE.
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