Advantages of Electronic Health Records (EMRs)
Explore the advantages of EMR systems for medical practices
What is an electronic health system (EHR)?
An electronic health record is the modern day, digital version, of a patient’s paper chart. EHR systems provide real-time, patient-centered records that are instant, secure, and accessible only by authorized users at your medical practice and provide a broad view of the care a patient has received.
An EHR contains a patient’s medical history, diagnoses, medications, treatment plans, dates of immunizations, allergies, labs, images, test results, and more. These systems also integrate with a wide array of other solutions like…
Clinical Decision Support
Telehealth
Remote Patient Monitoring
More…
Most notably, these system streamline workflows for providers and free up time otherwise spent documenting on patient charts and performing manual tasks.
What are the benefits of EHR?
There are many direct benefits of EHR that providers and patients experience when a system is implemented and optimized properly into a practice.
EHR Benefits:
- Streamline office coordination
- Less cluttered office space due to charts being store digitally
- Quickly transfer data inside and outside of your office
- Increase patient engagement and compliance among your patient base
- Increase patient safety through the reduction in medical errors
- Improve patient access to their own healthcare information through EHR systems and solutions
- Receive EHR incentives through CMS programs when meeting certain measures
How much a practice benefits from an EHR system is dependent on how well trained they are on a system and how optimized it is for their office’s use. While there are many benefits of EHR, there are some disadvantages that providers need to be made aware of, too.
What are the disadvantages of EHR?
Some of the major challenges that stem from implementing and utilizing an EHR system are exactly what one would expect, the time, cost, and constant training needed to utilize it fully.
It is no secret that a reliable and efficient EHR system is going to be a large investment for a practice monetarily. Organizations looking to implement or switch vendors need to assess their needs to and budget appropriately. Along with the investment of money, these systems also require an investment of time to be fully functional and efficient. Training with an EHR system will be necessary in order to reap the full benefits of EHR at a practice, but this ultimately sets your practice up for success.
While these are some of the more notable disadvantages of EHR, there are other issues providers have found with widespread use. We think the advantages to patient safety, compliance, and office efficiency outweigh those drawbacks.
Advantages of EMR for the Patient:
- Improved diagnosis and treatment
- Significantly fewer errors found within personal health records
- Faster care and decision making responses from assigned medical professionals
Advantage of EMR for Medical Practices:
- The ability to quickly transfer patient data from one department to the next is a huge asset
- The space saving benefit of a digital records environment
- The ability to ultimately increase the number of patients served per day for enhanced patient workflow and increased productivity
- Improved results management and patient care with a reduction in errors within your medical practice
- Reduced operational costs such as transcription services and overtime labor expenses
- Customizable and scalable electronic medical records that can grow with your practice
- Advanced e-Prescribing and clinical documentation capabilities
Plus an improved bottom line of the healthcare practice, enhanced through the ability to more accurately and efficiently process patient billing.
