Our medical practice is more efficient but also more enjoyable because
everybody has the information they need at all times.
– Jamie Hunter
Oncology Associates Office Manager
Helpful Information
We get it, you have concerns and questions about how electronic medical records can fit into your medical practice. We have case studies, whitepapers and real live examples you can review that illustrate how we have successfully implemented elegant EMR solutions in healthcare businesses just like yours.
Electronic Medical Records or EMR is the electronic version of the paper-based record of a patient. As with any old or new system, there are both advantages and disadvantages to electronic medical records. Below are some of the disadvantages of an Electronic Medical Record.
Converting hand-written medical notes and records requires a software. This software can be quite expensive and can cause a burden for many medical facilities.
Transferring the medical notes and records into a digital or electronic format can take a significant amount of time. This can be an added cost.
There is a need to train medical practitioners and staff to learn the system.
There are a lot of companies out there developing electronic medical record software, but there is no assurance that these softwares are compatible with each other.
One of the most feared is it can be hacked and patient data can be accessed by anyone.
Issues on who have full and direct access to the medical records.
Electronic Medical Records or EMR is the electronic version of the paper-based record of a patient. As with any old or new system, there are both advantages and disadvantages to electronic medical records. Below are some of the advantages of an Electronic Medical Record.
Many say that investing in an EMR is costly, but come to think it, in the long run, it will also be a great savings.
EMR is a space saver. No need to keep paper files on folders and storage cabinets, you just need to encode the patients files on the computer.
EMR can also help the environment in the reduction of paper use in health care facilities.
EMR has the ability to store and share information easier and more convenient to authorized persons. Multiple health care professionals or doctors can access the patient’s record simultaneously from anywhere, this makes the record immediately available.
EMR is more readable compared to handwritten charts. It is common knowledge that health care practitioners have handwriting that is quite hard to read, electronically transferred files can be more readable and accurate.
EMR has a back up and disaster recovery system making it much more reliable and safer compared to paper-based records.
EMR still promotes patient data confidentiality. Access to these records can be restricted and monitored automatically. Each authorized person has only a specific level of access to the data.
EMR has the ability to be sorted out in a way the doctor needs to see. It can recall data by date stored, by disease, by condition, or by prescription.
EMR data can not only store the patient’s data, it can also link the data to a reference information in the internet.
EMR data can be printed in a way that the most important data can be highlighted.
While electronic medical records (EMR) have been around since the 80′s, the right set of circumstances haven’t existed for this technology to take off until now. Here are the primary drivers causing rapid adoption of EMR.
Mature Technology
While there have been software solutions for decades that promised to help make managing a medical practice easier and patent’s information more secure. The packages that were provide were often bloated, expensive, and not user friendly. As a result medical practices didn’t migrate to EMR because it simply didn’t help their business. That has changed and now there packages that create outstanding return on investment in a short period time. The top EMR packages manage all aspects of a medical practice from security, compliance to calling patients to remind them of appointments. Electronic medical records is an eight billion dollar market and companies are racing like mad to secure the top spot. The top emr companies are; Allscripts, Centricity, Epic, Misys, Eclinicalworks.
The industry is consolidating rapidly in an all out sprint to establish market share and become the leader. All this bodes well for the medical practice shopping for their first emr software suite.
Government Stimulus
The second driver is the United States Federal Government. President Obama allocated a significant chunk of the American Reinvestment Act towards electronic medical records. The Veteran’s Administration already EMR in use. If a patient visits any VA hospital into VistA. This software allows and physician or authorized medical staff member to pull up the entire medical history of a patient.
Data Storage & Record Protection
The third driver in the adoption of electronic medical records is storage and redundancy.
The digital nature of EMR make them ideal to store. Not only can the patient and practice records be stored easily and cheaply but redundancy is afforded through technology that allows the records to mirrored in at more than one location. In the event of a fire, data-breach or natural disaster, a full, real-time back-up is available at alternate locations.
Complete Patient History
The fourth driver in the adoption of electronic medical records is patient history. Each time a patient visits a doctor he or she has to start fresh and explain and detail their full history. This would be fine if it actually happens but rarely do patients provide the full level of detail that doctor needs to understand their health up to the moment. A perfect example is a tetanus shot. Most people don’t remember the last time they had this shot if their doctor had this information and you were able to allow your information to be shared your other doctors and specialists could have that information too.
Space and Real Estate
EMR are more efficient than traditional paper records on so many levels but the most often cited benefit is reduced labor expense and reduced storage expense. No longer does a medical practice need one or more rooms with towering file storage cabinets. Also many physician’s are finding they don’t need as many administrative assistants to run their practice. Reducing their headcount by one person can easily pay for an EMR package in one year.
The Network Effect
As more and more electronic medical record companies find way to interface with each other it produces an efficiency network effect that is not limited to just medical practices. For instance doctor’s offices can link with pharmacies and instantly pass a prescription to a patients preferred pharmacy. This saves time but more importantly dramatically cuts down on medication typos. Typos and pharmacists misunderstanding a doctor’s handwritten orders have a huge adverse impact on patients as well as cost when a patient becomes ill as a result of an improper medication being provided. Insurance companies are also coming on board and integrating with EMR platforms so claims and prescriptions can be handled more easily and effectively.
