Medical practices, big or small, are learning to embrace technology within their operations.
Electronic health records (EHRs) are one example of how they’re doing this.
This software has helped many health facilities improve the doctor-patient relationship through streamlined documentation of patient’s medical history.
Here are the advantages both medical professionals and patients will receive when using EHR software.
1. High-Quality Medical Care.
EHR pricing is higher than traditional paper charts. However, the benefits outweigh the cost. An EHR system ensures patients get high-quality medical care because it provides healthcare workers easy access to patient information.
A digitized patient health record can be accessed from anywhere. This enables doctors to care for patients promptly, accurately, and effectively. Beyond this, the use of EHR’s can facilitate the use of a virtual assistant for healthcare operations, allowing medical professionals to focus on delivering quality care whilst an out of office admin assistant deals with the management of patient records. EHRs typically include a patient’s medical history, including diagnoses, medications, imaging, and lab results.
2. Increased Efficiency.
An electronic health record saves time by expediting appointments and eliminating the need for staff to contact different offices in search of information. Let’s say the patient has switched providers. Their EHR can easily be transferred to the new facility.
When information is readily available, things move faster. Artificial intelligence has found its way into EHR systems, making it easier for healthcare providers to diagnose patients and interpret their historical records.
Patients will also have access to these records, which means they don’t need to call their doctor’s office each time they have a question or need a copy of their medical records.
3. More Accurate Information.
Manual records are prone to errors because they are prepared by one individual and are not counter-checked. This is not the case with electronic records, which are made available to many people at once, making it easier to detect errors.
Additionally, electronic records eliminate mistakes associated with traditional paper methods. For example, if a patient’s chart isn’t legible, it becomes difficult to read properly.
And finally, paper records can be stolen and changed, diminishing their accuracy. EHRs have security measures set in place to prevent things like this from occurring. Of course, the risk of a data breach is always there, but it’s much lower when compared to the traditional method of paper charts.
4. Interoperability.
You also have EHR and electronic medical record (EMR) interoperability which is a system that allows the digital sharing of patient information between different healthcare providers. This is great because doctors can easily request certain files and provide quality care to new patients coming over from another facility.
EMR and other systems can interface with the EHR software, allowing doctors to provide continuous patient care. For example, when a doctor refers a patient to a specialist to manage their chronic condition, such as cancer or diabetes, the specialist will get all the information about the patient from the EHR system. This is also important when the patient is moving from one state to another and needs to change doctors.
5. Increase in Profits.
One of the many goals of a healthcare business is to increase revenue. A business can only achieve this by using reliable payment and billing tools to ensure payment and manage income. EHR systems offer this!
These systems can automatically scrub mistakes from claims and eliminate coding errors that can lead to overpayments. It’s crucial to compare the benefits of different systems, like ShiftCare vs GoodHuman because the software you choose can make a drastic difference in your company profits. Moreover, since this system improves efficiency, a facility using it will get more clients, thus boosting revenue.
Final Thoughts.
You now have all the reasons to digitize your patient records. From increased efficiency to an increase in profits, there’s no reason not to make the switch. Doing so will let you stand tall among your competitors and give your patients the care they deserve.
