INDIA – The Dow Chemical Company has announced the deployment of a new EHR solution across its U.S.- and India-based facilities. Company officials said the new technology is part of a push to improve the quality of life for employees and the surrounding community.

"Our range of healthcare services are expansive for our employees," said Mike Gondek, corporate medical coordinator for Dow Chemical. "The new tool gave us a number of nice features which helped to eliminate the paper questionnaire which patients were originally required to fill out."

The project's starting point began in 2005 with a vendor selection process. Fort Wayne, Ind.-based Medical Informatics Engineering was chosen as the most appropriate partner for the project. MIE's solution is set apart from other systems, said Gondek, "because its flexibility to integrate with our already existing technology."

Officials from Dow said the company had multiple requirements for the system, one involving improved usability. 

"We were looking for a comprehensive solution," said Cathy Baase, global director of health services at Dow Chemical. "Our legacy system was a partial solution so we working looking for a complete service. The system had to be easy to use for providers and intuitive to help prepare us for things to come in the future."

Presently the system has been set up in facilities across the US and India, and Baase said that, so far, the reaction has be very positive.

"People love this," said Baase. "The system is very user-friendly and intuitive. The transition was smooth and didn't cause headaches, and there hasn't been push back with people complaining about the new system - it just doesn't happen. We've had a growing positive experience from the beginning."

Future installments are on the frontier for Dow chemical as well, said Baase. Now that the system has been a success, the company plans to roll it out to other facilities in Europe over the next two years, with widespread adoption deadline of 2012.