Digital Doctor

Steve Lohr in "The New York Times" refers Dr. David Blumenthal, statement as; "the evidence worldwide suggests that electronic health records are seen as part of the long-term answer to improving care and controlling costs."

The researchers observed that overall, 44 percent of physicians have implemented EHRs and 56 percent still use paper based records. The survey reports also revealed that appropriate use of electronic health record systems have brought great improvement in health sector by redefining the medical practices' usual routines.

Furthermore, the condition, for the use of specific measures, to have the CMS incentives has played a great role in the appropriate use of Electronic Health Record System.

Few years ago, the worst part of a visit to a doctor was to wait in a reception room among the other sick patients. The new healthcare innovations have streamlined it, and now it is far easier to make patients' advanced appointments and they can know how much time the doctor may take before clearing up into a waiting room chair.

Electronic Health Record has emerged as a good time management tool in multiple ways e.g. by giving patients, an access to their online medical records through patient portal or patient health record system. The PHR (Patient Health Record) has reduced a huge number of query calls to practices. They can now access their basic information, family history, medications, allergies, immunizations, diagnosis and lab results directly. Each patient is given a unique ID by the practice which enables the patient to access the records by signing in to the system.

On the other hand, the physicians are also looking for EHRs for a way to save time and money. The shift from paper based to digital system has been proved economical with less use of paper, less staff and availability of patient records with few clicks. In addition, the features like vitals, problems, medication history, allergies, patient charting, Lab Results, family history, social history have made the data access and review very simpler. The providers don't have to go through the whole file at every visit, scrolling few links brings forward the whole patient history.

Another great feature of EHRs is use of electronic prescriptions. Physicians can transmit the prescriptions directly to the pharmacy easily in access to the patient. This helps in preventing medication errors. Usually providers used to give handwritten prescriptions to the patient or fax it to a pharmacy. Pharmacist also used to have difficult time reading handwritten prescriptions and may have little or no information about the patient's condition for which the prescription is written. Therefore, e-prescription plays a major role in reducing the incidents like drug duplication by alerting providers and plays a vital role especially with regards to controlled substances.

Electronic lab reporting systems with EHR have also brought forward focused and expected improvements to the completeness and timeliness of reporting. Eventually, the purpose of introducing EHR into healthcare was to facilitate the patients and providers with accurate reporting, by giving them an easy access of data and its availability, to have an economical solutions, and time management with the use of technology and ultimately survey reports prove a successful achievement of the set goals.

Dr. David J. Brailer, former national coordinator for health information technology in the Bush administration, states "The real gains come from improving the quality of the information that the doctor receives, so it is more accurate, complete and timely."

MyDoctorsChart is a Drummond certified EHR (electronic health record). The web based EHR software is integrated with patient's past medical history, clinical examinations, surgical records, lab results, financial information and current assesments etc.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?Digital-Doctor&id=7341657

Electronic Health Records and Small Practices

Healthcare had been facing multiple challenges with increased costs, work pressures and displeased patients and providers. With this increased burden, IT has become an essential managing tool for the healthcare department. Though multiple hospitals and small practices are adopting EHR (Electronic Health Record) but still the rate of adopting the technology is very slow especially in case of small practices and solo providers.

A report on the “adoption gap” claims that less than 11.3 percent of the small physician offices have fully implemented EHR systems whereas 88 percent of all medical offices are small practices. As per a survey report, one of the reasons of resistance in implementation of Electronic Health Record is a multiple typed work flow and physicians lack of management with it. They already feel themselves pressurized with work and take EHR as another hurdle or an additional pressure in the daily tasks.

As per our conversations with multiple doctors, we concluded; doctors does appreciate the neat and tidy work with an EHR, but they consider and take it as if they have assumed the role of a typist and are no longer in contact with their patients. Whereas on the other hand, it is equally as how we perceive things?

Generally working with an EHR, reduces multiple work pressures like, no prescription handling, no wastage of time in finding patient record, data and patients charts are available with few clicks, ease in patient communication with the use of PHR (Patient Health Record) etc. It is simply mastering the skill that can be gained with little familiarity with computers. 

Besides that, the EHR vendors are always helpful in making providers understand the system, the support team is available during working hours, and therefore, it just requires acquiring the right skill. Once the expertise is attained, the quality of work can be maintained simply.

Another concern being noticed is that, providers are desirous of an EHR (Electronic Health Record) that can be used to increase efficiency, save time and effectively communicate in the record. Here the responsibility lies on vendors to provide time efficient systems and communicate the right knowledge to right people effectively so that maximum people could take advantage of. The time conserving EHR have been introduced by multiple EHR vendors like MyDoctorsChart, a Drummond Certified EHR. The System works more effectively, taking less upload time, making a doctors life much simpler.

Secondly, following web based system is more effective reducing the burden of downloading the software and managing multiple technical issues etc. A web based system requires internet and a browser to run an EHR securely, whereas, support for technical issues regarding EHR can be managed remotely by the EHR vendor. There’s no need to worry about installing software, managing updates and maintaining the hardware.

The providers are not restricted to be in the same state as of the vendor with web based system, and the software can be accessed anywhere anytime securely with the use of login ID and password. This saves the provider from hiring any technical staff for the office.

Therefore, it is more economical for the providers to get started with a web based electronic health records. The work flow can simply be divided between front desk for scheduling and appointments, and the rest with Nurse Practitioner and the provider for a small practice. CMS is equally supporting economically by offering its incentive programs and there are multiple doctors who have received their first incentive payment by now.