An Electronic Health Record (EHR) is a real-time, patient-centered record that provides instant access to information to authorized users. While your EHR contains the patient’s medical and treatment history, the system goes beyond the typical clinical data you find at a provider’s office.
Below we’ve listed some of the benefits of EHR for both providers and patients.
EHRs offer a broader view of the patient’s health care. Within the record, you are likely to find:
- Patient medical history, medications, diagnoses, treatments, immunizations and their dates, radiology images, allergies, and lab test results
- It allows access to evidence-based tools that a provider can use when making decisions about the patient’s treatment
- It helps automate and streamline a provider’s workflow
EHR systems come with many benefits, both for healthcare providers as well as patients.
Benefits of EHR Systems for Providers
The installation of an EHR system allows health care providers to provide better patient care.
Robust EHR systems foster greater collaboration between hospital departments with fast patient data transfer and seamless accessibility.
Let’s take a closer look at the benefits of EHR in healthcare:
1. A comprehensive view of the patient
Electronic health records maintain dynamic patient-centered files that provide a holistic view of patient medical history. This enables superior diagnosis and treatment.
2. Better healthcare coordination
Digital records allow care providers smooth coordination and tracking of patient care across multiple facilities and practices. For instance, EHRs put in place a one-stop solution that covers services like office visits, tests, surgeries, and hospital visits to reduce time-consuming multiple visits.
Healthcare providers across disciplines and specialties can utilize EHRs to coordinate on patient outcomes, resulting in better care overall.
Other benefits of EHR systems include:
- Access to all health data required to make crucial decisions at the right time and increase patient safety
- Helps improve the quality of care scores due to complete and accurate data that aids in diagnosis and treatment
- The data also helps reduce medical errors and improve patient outcomes
- Improved communication and engagement between providers and the patient
- Helps improve care coordination when patients visit multiple specialists with accurate and up-to-date information
- Makes the transition to another specialist easier
- Implementation of certified EHR technology enables practices to take advantage of financial incentives such as federal stimulus funding and additional Medicare payments
- The information stored in the EHR is available even after the loss of equipment due to natural disasters or cataclysmic events
Read more about EHR:
Specific Benefits of EHR for Patients
Decision making tools used in the healthcare ecosystem ensure that patients are looked after well and make clinical decisions much more accurate for doctors. EHRs play a critical role in enabling safer and reliable prescriptions, hence contributing to improved patient outcomes.
EHR technology lets doctors access patient healthcare information using the internet. Plus, the convenience of using your device to access your test results, order for medication, and even make appointments via a patient portal makes EHR a critical tool for patients too.
To avoid MACRA penalties, physicians should adopt EHR to improve patient satisfaction scores. As payers understand the link between patient satisfaction and reimbursement, implementing EHR offers both patients and physicians clear advantages.
Implementing EHR in your practice offers patients the following advantages:
1. Eliminates unnecessary paperwork
An EHR system increases efficiency and productivity while cutting down on the paperwork and paper charts required. Your staff and patients have fewer forms to fill out, which offers clinicians more time with their patients. Prescriptions and referrals are sent out fast, reducing wait times for pickups and appointments.
Automatic reminders inform patients when they should come in for their annual checkup and integrated patient tracking makes filing, billing, and insurance claims easy.
2. Easy access to health records
Another great benefit of EHR systems for your patients is that they can access their health medical records any time they want. Parents can double-check health information on their sick child in case they need to answer questions from a pharmacist or insurance company. Getting lab test results in the comfort and privacy of their home helps reduce a patient’s anxiety.
3. No recent duplicate results
Your staff can access a patient’s test results via data available on the EHR platform. This is critical for invasive, uncomfortable tests or those that may require the patient to avoid food, for example. Further, they also help reduce test costs for items like an MRI.
Glimpse into a Future With EHR
When used to its maximum potential, an electronic health record system will improve patient care as you spend more time providing treatment instead of tracking records. Implementing EHR will also allow you to detect and share data in ways that were previously not possible, leading to faster, effective cures.
Interested in implementing EHR in your healthcare facility?
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