Making the Most from EHR (Electronic Health Record)

Although, EHR has facilitated doctors incredibly but many health care facilities have been slow to replace paper-based records with EHR systems in previous years. Thanks to the EHR reimbursement rules in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, health care facilities are now more provoked than ever before to make EHR implementation.

There had been multiple reasons for the slow adoption of EHR (Electronic Health Record) few of these are like;

1.  Cost of buying and implementing an EHR system
2. Potential interruption to the daily operations of the medical practice imposed by implementation
3.  Impact of an EHR system on a practice’s ability to conform with regulatory mandates

The above concerns have contributed to the slow adoption of the EHR systems.

Now physicians inclusive of small and midsized practices are on a way to the adoption of EHR encouraged by financial incentives and avoiding the risk of losing Medicare funding.

To meet the obstacles and concerns that have disinclined medical practices to move ahead for the implementation of electronic health record, medical practices are supposed to get selective while choosing an EHR vendor, making a careful selection. A careful planning for the issues like quality and speed, ongoing reliability, security and compliance, can result into acquisition of desired EHR system.

Another aspect for the practices is to make sure that the right technology is in place for the smooth transition from a paper based to digital record systems. The successful EHR system would help them meet the following key factors.

Speed and Reliability:

As medical practices are going to rely on EHR systems to create, store, share and retrieve patient information every day, the technology refresh would help achieve the goals in minimum time. This can be achieved two ways, 

(i) by adopting an EHR with upgraded and advanced speed features 

(ii) by updating their PC more often because the newer PCs are much faster than the older PCs. 

This can save much of the physicians’ time.

Data Availability:

With web-based EHR, medical practices can deal with emergency cases most effectively assessing patient data with few clicks. No matter, what time is it, even though a patient calls the physicians in late hours, provider can easily access the record and advise appropriately. On other hand, data is available anywhere, anytime whenever required. Besides that, with the paper based system, a provider have to search the patient file incase a patient visits after many years. The data on EHR system reduces this fatiguing task providing the record with few clicks.

Cost Effectiveness

According to a whitepaper from a telecommunication network, provider Qwest, medical practices that use EHR effectively have lower personnel costs than those that rely on paper records.

Better Decision Making Abilities

HHS explains “The data and timeliness and availability of it will enable providers to make better decisions and provide better care.” EHR systems give providers better and timely information about the patients which will enable them to make right decisions effectively.

Fewer Medical Errors:

EHR systems improve the precision and clarity of medical records diminishing its errors. A recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine affirms that “there are numerous ways in which EHRs can diminish diagnostic errors.” Including sorting and arranging the medical record, permitting uninterrupted updating of information, providing reliable information of tests and results and creating a forum for discussion about evaluation and diagnosis.

Improved Staff Efficiency  

EHR enhances administrative staff efficiency when patient’s chart and information is available through computer. They don’t have to spend time in finding the record from the files. Scheduling of patients’ visits, contacting patients, and preparing patient information in advance are the tasks that can be handled most effectively with EHR. This also saves time in making handwritten notes for the physicians. The reduction of multiple manual works saves time and improves productivity.

Protection and Security:

As medical practices intend to meet the confidentiality and privacy of patient data and information, the technology in security advancements for creating, storing and sharing the patient data is of immense importance. The advanced security features help protecting the confidential information much better and are less susceptible to virus and spyware.

Online Support:

Advances in medical technology are making it much more efficient and cost effective to get technology support for PCs in medical practices. Today there are multiple softwares and advancements that help in fixing the computer issue remotely instead of having someone specific in the office to manage the software issues. A single person can look after multiple practices remotely that would not only reduce downtime but also increase productivity and lowers ongoing support costs. 

Web-based EHR are more Feasible

The most feasible feature in the EHR is the web based service. This reduces the burden on hard drive as the software is not installed in the system but is available in the browser. The medical practices need to have a good internet connection that will help them connect with the data most effectively. Moreover, the data is much safer with that diminishing the hard disk failure risk.

Improves Time Management

Physicians who use EHR systems can deliver quality care to more patients in the same amount of time because they spend less time in pursuing the information during patient’s visits and instead they achieve better patient care rather than data arrangements and organization same time.  

Reduce Redundancy of Work

Implementation of current electronic health record helps physicians to ensure that they have accurate access to the information, that provide all tests and results data ordered previously and what medication / treatment has been prescribed so far. With this medical history, doctors would not order tests unnecessarily that would additionally save the diagnosis time ensuring what treatment patient has undergone previously.

The adoption of EHR (electronic health record) has improved in recent years. Federal government is providing generous financial incentives to enhance adoption rate and if not, has imposed penalty after 2015. With every invention, it has been difficult for people to easily accept its adoption, but slowly and gradually people start realizing the vast positive effects and suppleness that result into smooth workflow of the practice. Those who adopt the right EHR and vendor start reaping the fruits with operational, clinical and administrative work smoothness.   

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