Advantages of Electronic Health Records

With the requirements and incentives built into the Affordable Care Act, many healthcare facilities will be transitioning to electronic medical records. Read the guest post below from Jenny Richards to find out more about the pros of using electronic or digital medical records:

Medical records are vital as they can often make the difference between a patient receiving care that is appropriate or treatment that is based on just the experience of the attending medical staff and diagnostics performed in a hurry. Often paper records may not be legible, complete or even systematic requiring doctors to make educated guesses about the line of treatment to be followed. It can also be extremely optimistic to expect patients who are travelling to carry all their medical records with them just in case they fall ill or need medical attention for any reason whatsoever. Digitization of medical records that are already in paper form or generating records in the electronic form and uploading them to cloud storage has quite a few benefits resulting in a simpler and better treatment environment.

Reduction of Paperwork

Getting treated for any ailment can generate quite a large amount of paper not only for the patient but also for the care provider or hospital. These records ideally should be preserved for reference. When you take into account the number of patients this can easily amount to a humongous task in terms of sheer physical work, let along the responsibility of ensuring their safety and confidentiality. An electronic health record system eliminates most of the paperwork and can be extremely useful in giving easy and fast access to information with a proper classification and search procedure. The result of this exercise will be that both patients and doctors will have almost instantaneous access to medical records from anywhere in the world without having to locating the required documents and then transporting them to wherever they are required. The vital time that is saved in accessing the medical records can put to better use by the medical staff in treating the patient and having patient interaction that is more meaningful. Electronic records also ensure that the content is legible and not open to any misinterpretation by doctors trying to read often very difficult-to-read handwritten documents.

Reduction of Erroneous Drug Prescriptions

A sophisticated electronic health record system also enables doctors to prescribe drugs electronically. The process automatically compares the medical history of the patient and generates an alert if the drug being prescribed is not suitable for the patient. This electronic system acts as a surveillance system over the doctor’s actions and prevents erroneous drugs from being prescribed. This system acts to substantially prevent a lot of patient distress and hospitalization stress and expenses that would have easily occurred. The electronic health record system also enables doctors to compare between the various drug compositions offered by various manufacturers to select the most appropriate or even suggest a generic alternative that saves money. If you wish to know more, you could browse through recent HFA.co.in guide on DMR's.

Better Care Coordination

In complicated cases, the patient is often attended by a number of specialists, who will need to maintain independent records in the absence of an electronic health record system. Since it may be very difficult for doctors to keep on comparing notes on the diagnostics they may have ordered, it may so happen that the patient undertakes the same test a number of times resulting  in a complete waste of time and money. An electronic system of maintaining health records that can be shared online by multiple doctors can be extremely effective in implementing a treatment plan that is collaborative and effective.

An Effective Tool in Preventive Care

It is a common and unfortunate human foible not to undertake medical checkup tests and screenings unless there are some symptoms that have already manifested themselves. When there is an electronic medical record system that is online and accessible by people with portable connected devices, they can be easily reminded of tests that are recommended keeping in mind the profile of the person, his age, sex, family history, his own medical history, etc. Reminders may be sent to the patient in a variety of ways such as email and SMS to enable him schedule an appropriate appointment. The incremental cost of implementing these warnings is miniscule whereas the potential benefits are unimaginable. Learn more about the importance of digitized medical records by instructables.com.