Electronic Medical Records Benefits
The primary electronic medical records benefits are to both save cost and improve patient care. The advantages of electronic medical records goes beyond the cost savings. EMR medical software implementation provides several other benefits which we will discuss here.
There are several uses for patient medical records which benefit from
the advantages of electronic medical records. EMR medical records are
used not only to document patient care, but also research, quality
monitoring, legal, and financial purposes. Electronic medical records
benefits these functions by making it easier to share this information
with the parties who need it.
In addition there is a tremendous
cost and time saving associated with the administrative work in
accessing and sharing these records. No more looking up file folders,
making copies, insuring the paper copies are secure, and insuring the
paper records are securely sent to the other party.
Below are some of the many electronic medical records benefits:
- Cost
savings through efficiency. Reduced administrative tasks like searching
and waiting for information that you have with paper based medical
records. Cost savings are also realized by the reduced space and storage
of paper records and the labor of managing them.
- Cost
savings in knowing a patient's medical history, tests, etc. can
eliminate the need for duplicate tests. Another advantage is knowing
what treatments have been administered before.
- The
quality and accuracy of patient care is improved as electronic medical
records have improved legibility and accuracy. Having complete,
accurate, legible, and organized medical records is a significant
advantage of electronic medical records over paper. This reduces the
potential for errors and omissions resulting in improved patient care.
Accurate and up-to-date patient information is key to treating a
patient.
- Electronic medical records benefits the ability to identify drug allergies and interactions.
- The
ability to electronically send patient prescriptions to the pharmacy.
Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) allows physicians to transmit
drug prescriptions electronically to the pharmacy. This also greatly
reduces the likely of adverse drug effects and handwriting and
transcription errors - and the delays these can cause.
- Financial incentives from the federal government for implementing electronic medical records as part of the HITECH Act.
- The capability to access patient records by more than one user.
- Improved
security of medical records by allowing only those authorized or with a
need to know the access to medical records. Access to the EMR medical
software is logged and provides an audit trail documenting who accessed
the system and when.
- Potential for reduced
malpractice premiums. There are insurance carriers who will reduce a
providers malpractice premiums when an EMR system is implemented.
- Ability
to query and sort data quickly in a flexible format. This is a
significant advantage of electronic medical records over paper records.
Being able to perform searches is pretty much impossible with paper
records.
- Up to date patient information. No delay
in waiting for information to be entered or transcribed. Test results
can be entered into the EMR system and available as soon as complete.
- Integration
with other systems such as medical billing or practice management
software allowing patient and treatment information to be linked or
transmitted for creating insurance claims and patient statements.
- Easy to share medical records with other healthcare providers contributing to improved quality of care and decision making.
- Promotes
evidence based medicine by providing access to large amounts of
clinical information. This contributes to the knowledge of medical
procedures and practices collectively. However these advantages of
electronic medical records may only be realized when the different
systems - and there are many - can easily share information.The adoption
of standards in sharing EMR information would greatly help.
- Getting
patient records to a new provider is another electronic medical records
benefits. With paper medical records, when a doctor retired, closed
their practice, died, or moved the patient records are typically not
easily accessed. The advantage of electronic medical records makes it
easier for patients to get access to these records and getting them to
their new provider.
Electronic medical
records benefits go beyond the initial economic savings and contribute
to the improvement of the collective healthcare system. The advantages
of implementing electronic medical records improves the quality of care
for the specific patient as well and can eventually be a key to keeping
the healthcare costs of society in general under control.
Return from Electronic Medical Records Benefits to Electronic Medical Records Software
Return from Electronic Medical Records Benefits to All Things Medical Billing Home
-
Mar 31, 18 09:47 AM
Besides networking .. visiting their offices, how else can you attract their business? When you close the collections month, how do you bill the physicians?
Read More
-
Mar 31, 18 09:36 AM
I have a potential client that is requested claim scrubbing resolutions (only corrections on claims submission errors) and insurance verification on the
Read More
-
Mar 31, 18 09:28 AM
The provider that I bill for just advised that he has a new tax ID. What is the process for this change? Would every insurance company need to be contacted?
Read More
Disclaimer and Privacy
All-Things-Medical-Billing.com provides this website as a service. Please read our full Disclaimer and Privacy Policy here.
Copyright 2018 All-Things-Medical-Billing.com