By University Alliance
Electronic health records (EHRs) are detailed accounts of a patient’s health information, generated by multiple healthcare providers. An EHR typically contains information such as the patient’s demographics, contact information, vital signs, allergies, medical history, current and past medications, immunizations, radiology reports and laboratory data.
EHRs are designed to be shared across the spectrum of a patient’s providers to help deliver a more comprehensive health experience with the most accurate information possible. In an effort to decrease medical costs and improve patient care, the United States government is moving toward implementing electronic health records for all Americans.
Electronic health records offer numerous advantages for patients and healthcare providers. Here are some of the primary benefits:
1. Less Paperwork and Fewer Storage Issues
In the healthcare industry, administrative duties represent a significant amount of time and costs. Clinicians and staff can spend a large portion of the workday filling out and processing forms. Because they are paperless, EHRs streamline a number of routine tasks. As the amount of paperwork decreases, the required storage space also declines. With instant storage and retrieval of digital EHRs, healthcare providers will see their offices become less cluttered, as storage needs decrease and efficiency rises.
2. Increased Quality of Care
EHRs provide the ability to exchange complete health information about a patient in real time. Accurate, up-to-date and thorough information naturally leads to a higher quality of care, from better diagnoses to reduced errors.
By sending automatic reminders for preventative visits and screenings, EHRs can help also patients better manage their conditions and participate more fully in their healthcare.
When it comes to medications, paper prescriptions can be lost or misread, leading to errors in dosage or even the wrong medication being dispensed. Electronic prescribing allows physicians to communicate directly with the pharmacy, reducing errors and saving time by eliminating lost prescriptions. Patient safety is also improved, as electronic prescribing automatically checks for potentially dangerous drug interactions.
3. Financial Incentives
Procuring the necessary equipment, hiring the personnel to implement it and training staff on new procedures to transition to EHR can be costly for healthcare providers. Fortunately, financial incentives are available to help organizations recoup their investment.
Through the Medicare EHR Incentive Program and the Medicaid EHR Incentive Program, eligible providers (EPs) can earn incentives for the adoption and meaningful use of EHR technology. In addition, providers who adopt this technology before 2015 can avoid penalties.
4. Increased Efficiency and Productivity
EHRs are more efficient than paper records. They allow for easier, centralized chart management, quicker access to patient information from anywhere and condition-specific queries.
Communication with other clinicians, insurance providers, pharmacies and diagnostic centers is faster and trackable, which cuts down on lost messages and follow-up calls. Office management is streamlined through integrated scheduling that is linked to progress notes, automated coding and insurance claims. All of these EHR features generate significant time savings, leading to greater productivity.
5. Better Patient Care
With EHRs, what’s good for healthcare providers is good for patients, too. Streamlined access to a patient’s complete records means no more filling out the same paperwork at each doctor’s or specialist’s office.
Every provider can see which diagnostic tests a patient has had, along with which treatments worked and which didn’t. Patients are not subjected to duplicate tests or imaging procedures, because the results and images are all in one place. Better coordination among providers leads to more accurate diagnoses, improved management of chronic conditions and better overall patient care.
