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Top 7 Benefits of Understanding the Flow of Information into and across EHRs

January 27, 2022 - Parul Saini, Webmedy Team


EHR software collects, records, and maintains patient data. This can include common patient demographic information, medical history, diagnoses, medications, prescriptions, allergy list, documents, and lab results. The goal of an EHR is to organize patient data, creating it simpler for healthcare staff to evaluate a patient's record before or while their visit.

EHR tries to digitize your health records so that they're comprehensible by all of your health care providers. Providers take notes in an EHR system so that any doctor in your future can find them, easily understand them, and can add to them.

EHR has also been in the limelight over recent times due to the Customer Management System (CMS) "Significant Use" laws, which have motivated hospitals and practices to implement digital systems.

What is HIE (Health Information Exchange)?

Electronic health information exchange (HIE) allows doctors, nurses, pharmacists, other health care providers, and patients to appropriately access and securely share a patient's vital medical information electronically - improving the speed, quality, safety, and cost of patient care.

Health Information Exchange allows health care professionals and patients to appropriately access and securely share a patient's medical information electronically. Many health care delivery scenarios are driving the technology behind the different forms of health information exchange available today.

Benefits of Health Information Exchange

Health Information Exchange connects the healthcare providers to all aspects of a client's medical history. Providers can receive and exchange health information through HIE such as a patient discharge summary from a community hospital. This information can be brought into a patient's chart as electronic health data after it has been reviewed. Using an HIE helps facilitate coordinated patient care, enabling an organization to:

  • Save time by minimizing readmissions.
  • Increase efficiency by moving away from paper and fax machines.
  • Save money by avoiding duplicate testing.
  • Provide clinical decision support tools to improve care and treatment.
  • Minimize medication and medical errors.
  • Engage consumers about their personal health information.
  • Improve healthcare quality and outcomes.

HIEs reduce the amount of time patients spend completing paperwork and briefing their providers on their medical history. This frees up more time for discussions about health concerns and treatments between the patient and provider. By saving time for patients and providers along the continuum of healthcare delivery, HIEs have the potential to both reduce costs and improve health outcomes.

EHRs and the ability to exchange health information electronically can help you provide higher quality and safer care for patients while creating tangible enhancements for your organization.

7 Benefits of Understanding the Flow of Information into and across EHRS

  • #1 - Improved Collaboration

    Information collected by primary physicians can be easily shared, examined by specialists and other team members which results in avoiding duplicate testing, lower care costs hence providing better outcomes.

  • #2 - EHRs Can Increase Health Services Usage in Rural Areas

    An individual lives in a rural area where the nearest medical facility or clinic is dozens of miles away. When the individual starts to experience symptoms associated with a common cold, he is reluctant to travel to that facility. However, the person accesses his PHR online and discovers that these symptoms are also associated with one of his preexisting conditions. The individual travels to the health clinic and, because the staff has access to data regarding that person's comprehensive health history through an EHR, he can get a more accurate diagnosis.

  • #3 - Flexibility

    EHR provides you the flexibility to choose the platform as per your needs. You can choose a SaaS model or an on-premises model according to your needs and specifications. Provides physicians the flexibility to review tests, view reports, submit prescriptions from outside of their office allows great freedom for physicians, and increases the speed of patient care. Instead of waiting for couriers or rushing back to the offices, doctors will have the flexibility to view the records on smartphones, tablets, or desktops from anywhere at any time through internet access.

  • #4 - Financial Benefits

    Avoid loss of medical incentives and payment cuts by using a certified EHR; a certified EHR meets all the requirements including security and interoperability. By the Medicare EHR Incentive Program and the Medicaid EHR Incentive Program, qualified providers (EPs) can get incentives for the implementation and significant use of EHR technology.

  • #5 - Portability and Sharing

    As a doctor, you may be the patient's main care provider, but it's unlikely that you are the only doctor the patient is seeing. Patients may have numerous doctors covering from cardiologists to dermatologists. Every doctor a patient sees needs to have the same knowledge. In inpatient care without EHRs, providers hold only a fragmented picture of the patient's medical history, current analyses, and medications which could lead to various difficulties. EHRs grant a medium for patients to participate in their treatment with all their doctors and ensure the data is up to date. EHRs make sure that each provider in the patient's series of care knows about the patient's medical history and current diagnoses, and also knows what additional medications they are on.

  • #6 - Improved Productivity

    EHR can impact a physician's productivity by enabling them to provide quality and safer patient care.

  • #7 - Emergency Situations

    EHR can save time during clinic visits and can be life-saving in case of emergency. During a natural disaster, EHR can significantly benefit a patient who finds themselves in calamity situations. When a patient is not able to communicate in case of catastrophic events, the digital format can help here to access a patient's medical history that can make a difference between life and death.

Summary

Regardless of the challenges, EHRs and HIEs aren't going away. They are a major part of the digitization of healthcare and the shift toward value-based care. Learning to utilize these tools effectively will help your organization provide more streamlined, effective patient care. And, of course, we recommend working with an EHR vendor who will help you navigate this process with training, support, and best practices!

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