Telehealth EMR and EHR Solutions
Medical practices are increasingly adopting a telehealth approach to better serve their patients. Using HIPAA compliant Telehealth EHR (electronic health records) solutions offers several important benefits, including greater patient convenience and reduction of unnecessary risk for vulnerable patients.
Telemedicine also allows physicians and other staff to receive virtual visits from a larger geographical area than they could otherwise cover and saves patients money by cutting down on travel time and time spent away from work.
Telehealth EHRs in Hospitals and Medical Practices
In recent years, there has been a high level of adoption of HIPAA compliant EHRs to keep track of patient information including:
- Diagnoses
- Medicines Prescribed
- Medical Device Usage.
These records can be stored virtually, enabling their use at different locations and by a variety of practitioners either via computer or mobile apps.
Electronic Health Records represent a leap forward from legacy systems of paper records and siloed computer systems.
EHRs have helped Hospitals and Medical Practices through:
- Being cloud-based – medical staff no longer needs to expend significant amounts of time copying data from one system to the next or filling in paperwork with the same data over and over to send to different payment providers.
- Optimizing efficiency – EHR use optimizes the efficiency of medical record data collection and access by removing hurdles in the process of creating, storing, and transmitting such data.
Medical Practices, with the widespread availability of Telehealth EHR and EMR (electronic medical record) systems, have been able to keep up with the demand for telehealth services.
One impediment to effectively using telehealth EHR EMR services is the difficulty associated with efficiently processing patient information. An issue being faced by medical practices that lack an EMR interoperability telehealth system is entering patient data twice – once in the telehealth system and once in the EHR/EMR system.
The development of unified interfaces for EHR and telemedicine has enabled the data exchanges necessary to overcome this issue. Telemedicine EHR solutions allow for easy, real time access to patient health records and data.
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Telemedicine Functionality
As telemedicine platforms gain coverage from health insurance companies, accurately tracking telehealth charges, including medical device usage, is essential to receiving reimbursement.
The following functionality enables the smooth implementation of telemedicine services:
- Linking telehealth services to a system that processes electronic health records enables a medical office to quickly verify whether a patient is eligible to receive covered telehealth services.
- Linking EHR software systems to insurance databases helps prevent confusion and avoid delays in determining whether providers will be reimbursed for the time and effort they devote to telehealth services.
- During video visits, providers need to be able to quickly pull up a patient’s health records to be able to effectively diagnose the patient’s condition and offer a level of health care that is comparable to an in-person visit. When telehealth EHR functionality is embedded, providers can utilize a system they are already comfortable with to perform their duties.
Telemedicine Integration and Patient Engagement
EHR and telemedicine integration enables patients to view a summary of their visit and other medical information and updates their health records after visits. This helps boost patient engagement in the following ways:
- Keeps patients engaged with the clinical process.
- Helps patients understand any diagnoses they receive by including telehealth meeting data in their overall medical records.
- Enables continuity of care across virtual and in-person interactions with patients’ medical providers through automatic updating of their electronic health records in the telemedicine EHR system.
Telemedicine EHR and EMR Benefits
There are numerous benefits that can be gained from an integrated telehealth and EHR system. These benefits can be summarized as follows:
1. Improve ease of information flow throughout a practice:
Physician notes and other patient information can now be converted directly from telehealth consultations into EHRs. This enables practices to seamlessly integrate telehealth via video calls into existing operations without a hitch.
Whether they see a patient in-person or virtually, medical practitioners can utilize an EMR telehealth system to access and record their observations and vital patient medical data.
2. Minimize the potential for error when updating patient records:
By unifying patient recordkeeping on one system, the potential for errors in updating patient records is minimized as compared to using multiple systems for the same purpose.
3. Lower wait times for accessing care:
Telemedicine platforms make it easier for medical practitioners to see multiple patients, helping to reduce the time patients must spend waiting to see a physician or nurse.
4. Minimize access barriers such as mobility issues and health issues:
Patients who are too ill to travel to a medical office or who face long drive times or other travel impediments can now more easily access medical care.
5. Simplify the billing process:
Instead of having to issue bills from two separate systems, telemedicine EHR and EMR platforms enable the same system to be used for in-person and remote visits.
6. Improve patient outcomes:
By enabling patients to receive timely consultations with their physicians when called for, telemedicine platforms can help improve patient medical outcomes.
7. Reduce medical practitioner travel time:
Because telehealth EMR systems store data in the cloud, medical practitioners can easily access client medical records at multiple offices, improving their ability to serve patients wherever they are.
This combination of data access and the convenience of virtual meetings allows telemedicine EMR systems to provide medical practices with the support they need to improve their ability to deliver high-quality patient care.
8. Save patients money by eliminating travel time and time off work:
Conducting patient visits that don’t require physically visiting a medical practice enables patients to save money by reducing time spent away from work and eliminating travel expenses.
The Bottom Line
If you are looking to explore your telemedicine EHR options, TrueNorth can help you find the best telemedicine EMR system – one that is just right for you. Selecting the best EMR for telehealth involves evaluating how the various options can conform to your practice’s operating policies and procedures.
Once you’ve selected a system, we can map out the setup and train your staff to use it. We also keep you updated on any changes to system procedures or new functionality and provide on-going support in case you encounter any problems with it.
