Getting the Most Recently Added Field From A DB

I've been coding for a pretty long time and I'll admit being self taught in a lot of ways I sometimes do things in a totally back assed way... Take getting the value of an identity insert, I've been doing it like this:

<!--- INSERT INTO DB --->
<cfquery name="createLogEntry" datasource="#request.LOGdsn#">
    INSERT INTO APP_LOG
        (UNIQUE_ID,
         APPLICATION_KEY,
         EMPLOYEE_KEY,
         DATESTAMP,
         REMARKS,
         SEVERITY_ID,
         LOG_TYPE_ID)
    VALUES
        (#Arguments.unique_key#,
         #Arguments.application_key#,
         #Arguments.employee_key#,
         #now()#,
         '#Arguments.remarks#',
         #Arguments.severity_key#,
         #Arguments.log_type_key#)
</cfquery>

<cfquery name="getMax" datasource="#request.LOGdsn#">
    SELECT MAX(APP_LOG_ID) AS MAX_ID
    FROM APP_LOG
</cfquery>

Now I'm doing it like this:

<!--- INSERT INTO DB --->
<cfquery name="createLogEntry" datasource="#request.LOGdsn#">
    INSERT INTO [Aeolus].[dbo].[APP_LOG]
        (UNIQUE_ID,
         APPLICATION_KEY,
         EMPLOYEE_KEY,
         DATESTAMP,
         REMARKS,
         SEVERITY_ID,
         LOG_TYPE_ID)
    VALUES
        (#Arguments.unique_key#,
         #Arguments.application_key#,
         #Arguments.employee_key#,
         #now()#,
         '#Arguments.remarks#',
         #Arguments.severity_key#,
         #Arguments.log_type_key#)

SELECT APP_GROUP_KEY = SCOPE_IDENTITY()
SET NOCOUNT OFF

</cfquery>

And POOF! No more worries about locking and integrity issues... The page load should be just slightly faster not to mention less typing which is my personal favorite. =)