Are you searching for an EHR? Do you want to make a shift from all that tiring paperwork and upgrade to a digital setup? All good medical healthcare facilities in the modern age, feature a strong digital record-keeping system. Today, we have a ton of solutions to address the needs of a clinician, each more specific than the previous. The patient record keeping is among the foremost priorities in the healthcare industry, and for that, you have the EHR/EMR software to consider. Both provide you with a secure and reliable solution to store and manage your patient's records data. However, a significant population in the healthcare professionals remain unaware of the countless benefits EHR systems boast and how they can improve their work experience and practice success. This article intends to touch some of the major benefits of having EHR software.
What is EHR software?
When we look for the electronic record-keeping platform for healthcare providers, an endless list of EHR/EMR solutions pop up in front of us. All doctors require a solution that allows them to create and manage patient’s records data, update it after every encounter, and easily retrieve it whenever needed. EMR and EHR solutions offer you the ease to do all this at the convenience of your computers, under one comprehensive system.
While EMR systems accomplish all that, EHR software takes the process to a whole new level with the many advanced features and tools they offer. There are instances when healthcare professionals need the opinion of multiple experts for a patient, the EHR allows them to coordinate and share patient data and make referrals conveniently. EHR allows you to keep all the data at one place and authorize other clinicians to access the record and view the details of a patient. Not only that, EHRs support integration with lab tests, imaging, and pharmacies for prescriptions refills, all without the hassle of any manual workarounds and time-consuming interactions.
What are the benefits of EHR for patients?
With paperwork, the chances of error are significantly high. Human errors in paper records in the past have accounted for a significant amount of mishaps in a healthcare setting. EHRs do not eliminate the human factor. They do, however, feature a set of precautionary checks and error-proof mechanisms that potentially minimize, if not eradicate any errors from occurring by alerting the user if it deems wrong information is being entered.
Moreover, the patient doesn’t have to move back and forth, from one physician to another, to get a second opinion. EHRs make it easy for a hospital to centralize the patient’s data. As soon as you give access to a doctor, they can view the history and data of the patient without any trouble. This way different medical teams can communicate easily and save patients much time and hassle, in the process. The receptionist does not have to loop through tons of records, which in itself is an uphill task, to find the right documents. All they need to do is enter the patient’s ID, and the system will retrieve the entire records data under it, almost instantly.
Patients who find themselves in an emergency can benefit a lot from EHRs. It stores information regarding the medical history and treatment logs of a person’s entire life. So, the doctors immediately get to know what was wrong with the patient before the accident. Ultimately, some critical and life-saving information is supplied which is highly beneficial in emergency care units.
What are the EHR benefits for healthcare providers?
Patients generally tend to consult multiple doctors for numerous different purposes, which can make tracking their data a tough ask. There are several factors that can render them unable to convey the problems thoroughly and reliably. But when you see the history of a patient logged in an EHR by a professional, it’s much easier to review the past treatments that the patient has been through. Thus, you can make a conclusive diagnosis and prescribe the right medications.
Then, there are times when multiple doctors are working on one patient case at the same time. So, sharing the information and sending data promptly is very crucial. With the old method in practice, other doctors were likely to face delay because a clinician was busy or unable to successfully send the data. But with this system in place, all you have to do is update the information in the EHR and other practitioners can access it in within minutes!
EHR systems also reduce the burden of record management and problems associated with improper tracking. There were cases when patients were given the wrong dosage merely because the medical history of the patient given to the doctor was not right. Thus, it is quite relieving for doctors to use a reliable EHR system with accurate data in place.
Why must I move on to EHR?
There are countless pros if we look at EHR benefits. We analyzed the benefits of using an EHR from the perspective of a patient as well as from a clinician. As a hospital authority or a healthcare service provider you may have questions as to why you should consider adopting an EHR software and abandon the traditional paper record trails.
First of all, doing paperwork in itself is an uphill task. You need a dedicated staff to deal with this part of the job. You need members to note down every detail and updates. Then you need an individual who can store and retrieve that data. Moreover, there are stationery requirements and management concerns and possibilities of data loss, to be taken into account. But with an EHR, you don’t have to deal with any such thing. There is minimal to no paperwork and no storage issues.
An EHR system enables you to improve the quality of the healthcare services you provide. By offering real-time data and easy access to the information of a patient, you can consider the requirements and address them appropriately. Starting from diagnosis to proper medication and following treatment, the healthcare continuum experiences an improvement thoroughly.
What's more, it increases the overall efficiency and productivity of the medical facility. One of the biggest EHR benefits is that you can have a more streamlined workflows, organized care system that ultimately ends in better ROI and financial prosperity of the practice.
EHR also helps in lowering the overall cost by decreasing the paperwork and reducing the duplicate testing problems. You need fewer individuals to deal with EHR systems. It also provides powerful tools to keep track of patients' medical history.
