EMR and Healthcare Quality

Provision of quality healthcare has long been the rationale behind Electronic Medical Records and their usage. With the automation of medical records, the healthcare community seeks to establish the use of dynamic health information. Analyzing healthcare data can help providers track core issues and derive plausible solutions. Interoperability of healthcare information would not only enhance medical response time, but would also ensure quality care.

Comprising of all the relevant patient health information, the primary objective is to create a single unified record.  Electronic Medical Records can compile the complete medical history of patients, without the physicians having to search for them manually.

Jon White, Director of Health Information Technology of the Federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality says, “The promise is that they’re going to help us deliver better care with better outcomes. But you can’t just have an EMR you have to learn to use the tools in the right way.”

Electronic Medical Record softwares are interoperable with commonly used medical devices and equipments as the age of mobile connectivity is upon us. EMRs can virtually store patient test images for later retrieval or electronic sharing. Through utilization of integrated PACs, interfacing with labs and pharmacies allow for instant access to test results, adding convenience for both the physician and the patient by eliminating test duplication.

Effectively connecting the healthcare sector, Electronic Medical Record Software are enabling new channels of communication and collaboration with enhanced information storage, access and dissemination capability. EMRs have overcome most of the bottlenecks associated with healthcare, although its use still remains limited. However, the full potential of Electronic Medical Records are yet to be realized.

How are EHR better than EMR systems?

When it comes to using an EHR or EMR, one is far superior to the other. Let’s see which one performs advanced functions.

First of all, let’s elucidate how EHR and EMR are distinct from each other in a single word, interoperability. EHR is essentially an EMR with interoperability: the ability by which an EHR can share and exchange data among different platforms of healthcare. With one feature that makes EHR a better software than EMR, let’s move forward and see what other edges EHR has over  EMR.

EMRs limit the data of a patient to a facility. So, what happens in an EMR is that medical information of a patient is collected, changed, and discussed with providers and staff within a single organization. In the process of using an EHR, integrated data is shared, consulted, managed among more than one healthcare facility with providers and their staff; allowing providers and practitioners to be efficient in reaching out to the patient.

EHRs allow the information to be transformed systematically with the patient, allowing the process of going to a specialist, the hospital and even moving across states reachable between patient’s healthcare providers and practices. EMR lacks this capacity to reach beyond a single organization.

A simple yet very powerful feature of an EHR is that it reduces paperwork across platforms. The usage of data stored on printed paper is reduced by allowing the electronic data to be transferred seamlessly across multitudes of healthcare providers. EMR can save paper of a single organization, and the limiting factor of an EMR is that the data of a patient needs to be printed to take out of the organization while EHR because of its extensive reach is able to transcend this limitation.

EHR allows even the patients’ to see their past medical log for the past year. This compelling feature is absent in an EMR. It allows the patients’ to simulate energy in them to change their lifestyle; encouraging them to take medication with regularity, essentially decreasing the burden on the provider and improving their health.

With an , you can achieve higher Rate of Investment (ROI) by exchanging the data electronically among organizations, the healthcare providers save their costs in terms of reduction of staff members needed to mange patients’ data and the need to transfer patients’ information from one healthcare provider to another. Apart from that, EHR eliminates the need to do redundant tests on patients’ in turn saving costs.

In essence, EHR provides a higher degree of clinical decision making information by integrating patient data from numerous sources and with that it not only saves costs but proves itself a better system than an EMR.

Read more about: Avoid EHR Switching Mistakes To Save Your Practice From Unnecessary Costs

EMR – Thinking Outside the Box

Electronic Medical Records are an innovative tool for our healthcare system. With the paper file system running its due course, we have perfected it to the point where there are no further improvements or benefits derived.

Not just about record keeping anymore, EMR is transforming the healthcare industry. Electronic Medical Records not only overcome the limitations of traditional systems but offer unique possibilities of health information exchange, storage, access and retrieval. Data mining capabilities can add new dimensions to healthcare delivery along with medical research. Physicians can improve care quality through personalization and along with governments, determine better resource utilization to accommodate situations such as outbreaks and epidemics.

Slowly realizing the tremendous potential of interoperable EHRs, physicians, with the new age of healthcare knocking on the door, must adapt to newer technologies or risk becoming obsolete. A general health Florida based physician explained how he chose to adopt EMR “I had this lady come in with her grandson and she wanted me to provide her with an online health record along with access to the lab results. She explained how her grandson helps her look it up on the computer which saves her a phone call and sometimes even a trip. I just had to do it.”

With the advent of Accountable Care Organizations, the government is trying to replace the “fee for service method” with performance related compensation supporting evidence based practices. A dedicated fund for healthcare reform, the government plans to eradicate inefficiencies that have their roots deep inside the heart of the healthcare tree. Electronic Medical Record solutions are the answer for numerous problems faced by physicians today. From increasing productivity at the practices by streamlining clinical , administrative and financial workflows, EMR solution solutions are changing the face of the industry as we know it.

Read more: What you need to know about ACOs

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