admin The practice of meticulously and methodically documenting all the health-related details of patients in the form of health records has been in practice since time immemorial. The way how crucial health information is maintained and managed has been changing over the years. With giant leaps in technological advancements, today, managing health records by electronic means has become possible.
The Exigencies of Electronic Health Record (EHR)
The history of clinical documentation has been dependent on the paper-based environment, and this mode proved cumbersome while not being efficient. With the advent of electronic means, patient health records have been created, stored, and managed in the digital format, making this easy and convenient. The accuracy of health records has also increased considerably.
Unlike the paper documentation, EHR systems offered efficient data retrieval, information exchange, and reliable health information that helps care providers to deliver the most optimal care.
The Paper-less Electronic Health Record Environment
Beginning as a system that offered to store medical data on a stand-alone computer, the EHR systems have come a long way in efficiently managing patients’ health records. Today, electronic health records can be stored and efficiently managed online, enabling healthcare facilities to function as absolutely paperless offices. This helps practices and clinicians to streamline their day-to-day activities and achieve maximum efficiency.
A Trigger from Paper-Based System to the EHR System
The entire healthcare industry has been witnessing unprecedented transformation during the last few decades, thanks mainly to the entry of health information technologies in the medical field. Statutory requirements such as HIPAA and the Affordable Care Act have established the standards to protect electronic health records and encouraged their implementation.
This has added fuel to the development and extensive adoption of the EHR system. Furthermore, incentives for implementation and penalization for failing to implement EHRs has had an enormous impact. Several factors require the medical professionals and healthcare facilities to adopt electronic means. There’s little wonder that the industry has shifted toward using the electronic health records as its primary strategy of managing patient health records.
Exclusive Benefits of Implementing the EHR System
The systematic collection and storing of patients’ health information in the reliable and robust digital format has enabled caregivers to more easily access and share critical medical records through enterprise-wide, network-connected record management platforms.
Besides the increased practicality and usability for practices and clinicians who implement the EHR system, the modern EHRs offer myriad advantages. High level of data accuracy, reduction of the possibility of data replication, and elimination of the need to track and locate patients’ past records before adding new changes are a few of the exclusive benefits reaped by adopting the EHR system.
These, and the other advantages that are specifically relevant for providers in large healthcare organizations, who need to handle the health records of several patients on a daily basis, have been the driving force behind the large-scale adoption of the modern EHR system. Furthermore, insurance companies, state and federal governments, and even large medical institutions also find this system very helpful.
EHR System for Health Care Providers and Medical practices
When practice-specific and appropriately designed EHR systems are implemented, the need for taking down transcriptions on paper is eliminated. This system helps to organize physician workflows well, thus leading to increased productivity and efficiency. It facilitates better exchange of lab and radiology reports. Communication method with patients and other medical professionals is improved. Inefficiencies are greatly reduced, and better health care is promoted.
EHR System enables providing the best care without wasteful utilization of resources. Duplication in any form such as prescribing or testing can be reduced significantly by the EHR’s ability to transfer patient information between different health care facilities. Automatic reminders will help reduce errors while improving productivity, thus offering a helping hand to medical professionals in delivering the most optimal patient care.
Adoption and Implementation of EHR System in the Recent Past
The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, when enacted as a part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, specifically required EHRs. The law was designed to involve incentives and penalties for care providers with regard to the use of electronic management of health records. This encouraged widespread use of EHR systems.
Changes Brought About By the Revolutionary EHR System
With the advancement in technology and breakthroughs in medical science, the modern health care industry has achieved giant strides over the last few years. Improvement in the overall quality of care delivery and better patient health outcomes have been made possible.
EHRs play a significant role in such unprecedented advancements and subsequent improvements. EHRs have contributed to several positive changes in the medical industry, a few of which have been discussed below:
- Care delivery: Implementation of EHR System ensures that providers’ workflows consume less time. Input errors are minimized, thus decreasing the risks related to objections of reimbursement claims.
- Patient outcomes: EHR adoption has enabled providers to witness upswings in patient outcomes. Factors such as interoperability, decision support system, and drug reaction alerts have contributed to better patient outcomes.
- Health on the go: Technological advancement has enabled pairing EHRs with mobile technology. Now, there are systems using which medical professionals can view their patients’ information and connect with the patients on their smartphones in real-time.
- Public health outcomes: Access to electronic data about the health of the entire population of patients enables providers to identify certain trends. Specific information such as which patients are being treated for a particular condition, medications taken, and their impact. This helps in taking certain specific preventative measures.
Wrap-up
By converting paper-based health records into electronic format and managing them in the EHR system empowers healthcare providers to streamline the overall functioning of their practices. Accessibility, integration and interoperability, and ease of use and searchability are a few of the key factors that make EHRs the primary method of health record management in the modern medical ecosystem.
About The Author
Kumar Subramaniam, the co-founder, and, CEO of Kaaspro Enterprises is an alumnus of the renowned PSG group of educational institutions. He has been instrumental in conceptualizing and getting the sophisticated 75Health EHR platform that empowers medical professionals and healthcare facilities across the globe to streamline their processes. Focusing on the technological needs of the healthcare industry, and ensuring the safety and satisfaction of patients, the author has been working in close partnership with health care providers and individuals. Not just the cloud-based, customizable 75Health EHR, he has been the driving force behind the creation of other useful and sophisticated medical information technologies as well.
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