The Electrical Medical Record (EMR) is one of the many advancements in the healthcare industry that helps to simplify the treatment and care patients are receiving. EMRs are used to store patients’ information digitally, which can then be shared between healthcare providers to find the best care for their patients.
In addition to that, the Electronic Medical Record has really helped the healthcare sector to reduce unimportant procedures and to ensure that adequate care is given to patients at the appropriate time. This article will look into how it is assisting healthcare practices everywhere.
Improved Communication
As EMR technology continues to advance, many EMR developers are looking towards mobile devices and are trying to find better ways for patients and doctors to communicate on these devices. Patients can use mobile devices like smartphones to check symptoms regularly, take pictures of their symptoms, or send text messages to a doctor. With this, doctors or healthcare providers will be able to determine if they will require a further physical diagnosis. Also, it can help the patient to receive fast treatment without delay.
Wearable Tech
The use of wearable tech is also one of the latest advances in EMR. Wearable tech can also be used to enhance communications between patients and healthcare providers. Additionally, it is one of the 21st-century ways to live a healthy life and also keep track of your health conditions.
In addition to that, wearable tech such as fitness trackers offers several benefits to the healthcare system. They can help to generate useful information such as heart rate and blood pressure readings. Additionally, this information can be uploaded automatically to the cloud and added to a patient’s EMR. With this, doctors can use the information to treat the patient accordingly.
Data Is Accessible Easily
Another development in the field of EMR is the use of a cloud-based platform to store patient’s information, which means it’s safer and more secure. In those days, medical records will be kept in a room, which can be vulnerable to flood, fire, and unauthorized access.
Besides the data being safe, it also frees up space in medical environments. The rooms that were previously used to keep medical records can now be used to keep medical equipment or treat patients. Additionally, cloud-based platforms also save cash for the healthcare sector as they no longer need to pay for digital systems. If this wasn’t all, the ability to store this information on the cloud enables medical professionals from all over to access the patients’ notes in a matter of minutes. For example, if you have a patient that is addicted to drugs, you could transfer them to Harris House, which has specialized treatment programs. The great thing about EMR is that the staff at facilities like this can access information about that patient in minutes, which could help in forming that treatment plan.
Improved Quality of Care
By enabling easy access to patient records, EMRs also help improve the quality of care. Physicians can see an analysis of a patient’s medical data, which helps them recognize patterns thereby helping them predict illnesses, provide a correct diagnosis before conditions and illnesses advance too far, and recommend the best treatment plans and options. Using analytics like this ensures physicians can get their diagnosis right the first time and put the right treatment in place instead of relying on trial-and-error, which often leads to worse patient outcomes.
Additionally, if both patients and physicians can use the EMR system to track the patients’ progress, preventative care becomes easier.
Increases Efficiency
Time is one of the most important resources doctors have and improving efficiency means they get more time to see more patients. EMRs allow doctors to see a patient’s history immediately, which helps speed up visits and appointments. This allows doctors to see more patients in a given period.
EMRs also increase efficiency in the transfer of medical records from one department or hospital to another. If a physician or their assistant has to look for physical records, organize them and then transfer them over, they would be left with very little time to do anything else depending on the volume of patients they have. Using an EMR system, physicians and their assistants can share patient records in a few clicks and be sure that the records were received by the other party.
Better Prescription Control
E-prescribing is becoming standard practice in many healthcare facilities. Depending on where healthcare facilities and their patients are located, it might become necessary to prescribe medications electronically. Using an EMR system, doctors can better control the prescriptions they hand out as well as have accurate data on which patients are on which medications.
This tighter control over prescriptions has led to a decrease in the abuse of potentially addictive medications such as opioids. Also, healthcare facilities can send prescriptions directly to pharmacies nearest to their patients to improve convenience, so patients do not have to travel far to get a prescription filled.
Lastly, EMRs can check for drug-to-allergy and drug-to-drug interactions. These can be picked up by comparing the patient’s history to their current diagnosis and treatment plan.
Increase in Revenue
All businesses need to make money and that is no different for healthcare organizations. EMRs come with billing and payment tools that make it easier for hospitals to collect payments and manage their revenue. Using these systems, healthcare facilities are better able to bill for every aspect of a patient’s visit, which eliminates mistakes and increases revenue.
EMRs also make the claims process easier by eliminating coding errors and other mistakes thereby improving acceptance rates. The result is that reimbursements are done quickly without any of them being delayed or lost.
EMRs also help reduce transcription and overtime costs that are a common part of physical record-keeping strategies. Lastly, allowing healthcare facilities to see more patients through increased efficiency goes a long way in helping them improve their bottom line.
How to Implement These Into Your Healthcare Practice?
If you are looking for ways to include EMRs and their latest developments into your healthcare practice, there are several ways that you can go about doing this. For example, you can start by attending conferences or seminars, or you can get your own seminar venue where you can discuss the latest EMR advances with your staff.
In addition to that, you can also discuss with medical experts in the field. Electronic Medical Records are experiencing tremendous growth, and new use cases are discovered daily to enhance communications between doctors and their patients. From mobile technology to wearable tech, EMR technology will be a large component of the future of healthcare.