Last Updated | November 15, 2021
Electronic health records have gained many footprints into the medical industry with doctors/physicians and healthcare institutions rapidly implementing the electronic health recording technology for higher efficiency and streamline workflow processes. Long gone are the times when health records would be managed on paper; which isn’t just a time-intensive approach but also prone to errors. With the implementation of electronic health systems, the management of patient records and optimization of clinical processes is faster, more streamlined, and free from errors.
The electronic health records implementation results in time-saving, record management, and resource management. Above all, it can improve the quality of patient healthcare. But, there’s much more to HER than storing data.
However, these benefits can be yielded only if the EHR systems are appropriately designed, which brings us to UX design for healthcare apps. That’s because an interactive and intuitive user experience will optimize the functionality of the EHR system and help patients get most value of the platform.
So, if you are wondering, how do electronic health records improve patient healthcare? Keep reading, since, in this blog, we are sharing the details on how does electronic health records improve patient care beyond storing and collecting patient information. Let’s dive into the details!
Impact Of Health Information Technology On The Quality Of Patient Care
To begin with, health information technology improves the quality of patient healthcare by reducing the errors in medication, enhancing compliance with health practice guidelines, and cutting down on drug reactions. Health information technology has become an essential tool for improving the safety and quality of healthcare services.
Healthcare organizations have been extremely selective in technology investments. This is essential since there’re a lot of regulatory guidelines that have to comply in the healthcare sector. In this regard, EHR has proven to be one technology that has already made great in-roads into the medical industry, enabling healthcare facilities to not only optimize their workflow processes but also keep up with the compliance requirements. The adoption of EHR delivers a direct and positive influence on nursing care and the outcome of patient health. The system also assists healthcare practitioners with timely decision-making and effective communication.
Healthcare information technology is the application of hardware and software solutions through information processing; it deals with the retrieval, storage, sharing, and utilization of knowledge and data. It comprises different technologies, ranging from basic charting to medical technology integration and advanced decisional support.
How To Improve Patient Care And Reduce Medical Errors With EHR
The errors are evident and obvious when it comes down to traditional healthcare services. These risks usually occur when more than one physician is treating the patients. These errors can result in incorrect prescriptions and wrong dosage. That being said, electronic health record technologies will reduce the chances of such errors.
With the implementation of the EHR systems by adding healthcare web application development, the physicians can update the medications, improve the monitoring standards, and streamlining the follow-up patient care. These systems also deliver automated reminders, such as annual shots, mammograms, and vaccinations, so the patients don’t fall through the cracks. All in all, it promises careful monitoring and tracking of patients.
EHR Affects The Way Healthcare Is Provided To Patients In Telemedicine
The EHRs are widely influencing the quality of healthcare services for patients. The development of ACOs promises the implementation of high-end technologies for proper medical data sharing. In the modern world, healthcare facilities are using cloud-based solutions which streamline the communication between patients and physicians.
Ranging from the ongoing treatment for severe diseases to the discussion of healthcare plans, the EHRs ensures clear and efficient communication between healthcare practitioners and patients. In addition, the cybersecurity and encryption features reduce the chances of security and privacy risks. Perhaps, the most intriguing factor of telemedicine is its impact in opening up the healthcare services for rural areas (positively, of course).
The remote medical and health services allow the patients in remote areas to receive medical treatment which they wouldn’t be able to receive otherwise due to lack of qualified doctors or specialized clinics in the area. The technology optimizes the communication tools and data sharing among the healthcare professional that improve the quality of health care for patients in rural areas.
How Can Physicians Use Telemedicine for Remote Diagnosis With EHR?
The remote patient services and their benefits have expanded greatly delivering efficient and effective outcomes through the implementation of EHR solutions. With the EHR and telemedicine technology, physicians and doctors are able to communicate with patients remotely for early diagnosis, consultation, and treatment. The technology is also used by physicians for medical research, which can be shared with other physicians fastening up the research work. Alternatively, the technology also enables doctors and physicians to make accurate and timely diagnoses of diseases by sharing the medical symptoms with other relevant doctors through technology. On top of everything, remote diagnosis greatly reduces the costs of medical healthcare services, which is beneficial for patients, as well as, physicians. With improvement in productivity and efficiency, the quality of patient care will be improved, whereas, doctors will also be able to treat more patients by using telemedicine technology.
Through video conferencing, the healthcare providers can listen to the patients and examine different symptoms. These factors can be documented with EHR systems that deliver comprehensive medication and treatment. It will also reduce the chances of inappropriate medication and also offers instant access to the medication lists and other information.
What are the Challenges In The Implementation Of EHR In Telemedicine?
- Costs
When it comes down to the problems encountered by electronic health records, the implementation of the EHR system can be extremely expensive. While the technology is getting more and more affordable every year, it is still a large investment, which is one of the main reasons why most healthcare facilities have still not implemented the technology.
- Resistance From The Staff
Healthcare providers are often doubtful of the electronic health record efficiency. That being said, some personnel will show resistance since they are used to documenting on paper charts. In addition, the lack of awareness of the staff about advanced technology may delay the EHR implementation.
- Time-Consuming Training
With the implementation of the EHR systems, the staff has to be trained to ensure they can handle the advanced technology. That being said, the training can be time-consuming since there are various features and functionalities that have to be mastered for optimal use of the EHR system.
- The Future Of Healthcare Electronic Health Records In Telemedicine
According to the stats, more than 59% of physicians consider that they need change and upgrade in the system, while around 66% of users tend to use the internet for researching medical issues. The outbreak of coronavirus has only reinforced the need for telemedicine to manage future healthcare crises. Today, as healthcare services around the world are fast implementing telemedicine technology, the EHR remains a preference for hospitals, and other healthcare facilities to efficiently manage daily operations.
In the future, the EHR systems will witness a spike in implementation across the healthcare facilities, as well as, will experience growth in interoperability and integration.
- Affordable Care Act Impact On Health Information Technology
The Affordable Care Act is meant to improve the quality of healthcare services through the utilization of technology. As for the technology, it ranges from computer modeling to electronic health records for better trackability of healthcare expenses. That being said, Affordable Care Act has delivered a positive influence on healthcare information technology.
It has managed to improve the quality of healthcare for patients. In addition, it has devised informatics that allows the healthcare workers to curate new programs, integrate advanced technology, and search for improvement in the healthcare sectors.
Threats To Electronic Health Records Security In Telemedicine
- Phishing Attacks
The healthcare providers often ask, “what is the greatest risk facing electronic health records?” Unfortunately, there are multiple risks associated, and one of them is phishing attacks. Generally, phishing attacks are conducted through emails since they send links. So, the healthcare providers must not click on the links received through unknown or unauthorized sources.
- Blind Spots In Encryption
Data encryption is important for protecting the data during transfer from the on-site users to the applications. However, the blind spots in encryption standards have been causing security concerns
- Threats In Cloud
Healthcare organizations are shifting to cloud solutions for improving collaborative efforts and patient care. However, if the cloud solutions aren’t compliant with HIPAA, it can result in security threats.
How To Maintain Patient Privacy And Security In Telemedicine?
- Training
Healthcare organizations must start delivering security training to the employees. This is because the healthcare organizations must ensure that the employees are complying with the security and protection practices.
- Protocol Of Remote Access
Healthcare organizations must start offering remote access to the patients. In addition, the authorized employees must also have remote access because it streamlines the operations.
- No Personal Devices
For maintaining patient confidentiality through telemedicine, the organizations must only use the authorized and organization-implemented devices. That being said, the utilization of personal devices must be reduced because it can adversely influence the security and confidentiality of sensitive patient data.
Involvement of Government In The Implementation Of EHR In Telemedicine
As part of Health Information Technology for the HITECH Act, the federal government allocated $27 billion for the designing and implementation of the incentive program. It was for encouraging the healthcare providers and hospitals to adapt to the electronic health record systems.
How To Increase Patient Satisfaction In Healthcare With Telemedicine?
- Cost Cutting
With the implementation of telemedicine in the healthcare industry, patient satisfaction can be improved by cutting the costs of healthcare services.
- Higher Efficiency
Telemedicine ensures that patients no longer have to commute to the hospitals and clinics. Even more, the technology enables patients to keep up with their medical appointments without having to take the day off to access healthcare services. Also, telemedicine technology enables patients to get access to qualified healthcare practitioners faster and without the weeks-long wait. Also, the technology allows the patients to choose a suitable appointment time. For doctors and physicians, the technology enables them to increase their medical practice by consulting more patients in a limited time. This means that while the cost of the healthcare services may go down for the patients, the healthcare practitioners can keep up with their incomes by increasing their medical practice.
Can HL7 Integration Help Improve Patient Care With EHR & Telemedicine?
The short answer is yes, HL7 integration services can improve patient care. For the most part, the healthcare industry is highly complicated and hugely dependent on sharing and processing information. According to research, every patient can create 80MBs of data in the form of imaging and EMR. The data is generally stored and processed in different pools that are available to different medical facilities. In addition, there are chances of disassociation of data.
Large-scale healthcare providers depend on different IT systems to keep the treatment services and diagnostic services up and running. Generally, the hospitals tend to use EMR, HIS, LIS, PACS, and RIS for gathering and generating information. However, these different systems have different data formats, which adversely impacts communication. For this purpose, HL7 integration services can solve this issue by offering multiple benefits, as mentioned below.
- Uniform Data Across The Medical Infrastructure
The IT systems are designed with different transmission protocols and data formats, and some even have data interpreters. With the integration of HL7 standards, healthcare organizations and facilities will achieve compatibility on different data exchange platforms. For instance, with HL7, hospitals will be able to collect the patient information and process it for diagnosing the treatment and creating the bills.
- Seamless Medical Decision-Making
In the healthcare industry, doctors have to act quickly, especially during emergencies, and need quick medical assistance. For this purpose, there needs to be fast and consistent access to medication information, medical history, previous treatments, and more. With HL7 integration, complete patient information is available with doctors, leading to quick decision-making.
- Standard & Secure Data Exchange
When it comes down to medical providers, there is often a need to share medical information with third-party software for research or reference purposes. For this reason, HL7 can help by bridging the gap between data exchange since it uses web APIs. In addition, these HL7 standards promise better data protection and security.
How To Improve Patient Satisfaction With Doctors By Telemedicine?
With telemedicine, the patients will be able to get in contact with the doctors directly. This is because the patients can communicate with the doctors through email, video conference, and audios, hence faster and more effective communication. The best part is that patients no longer have to wait in the queues or wait for hours to see the doctor. Thereby, telemedicine greatly helps to improve patient satisfaction with the doctors.
FAQs
What may be barriers to implementing electronic health records with telemedicine?
With the implementation of electronic health records with telemedicine, the barriers include concerns about the healthcare providers, availability of funding, unavailability of interoperability, and the lack of code sets and information standards. Thus, overcoming barriers to EHR adoption remains an important challenge for the medical industry and in this regard, creating a leadership team for successful EHR implementation should be the first priority of healthcare facilities.
What percentage of private practice dentists use an electronic health record?
According to stats, around 16% of the group practices are thoroughly paperless, while 14.3% of private practitioners are paperless.
Role of nurses in maintaining the confidentiality of patient information?
The nurses can help maintain the protection and privacy of the community, individuals, and families. The nurses can maintain the confidentiality of patient information, be it clinical information or personal information.
How would the EHR team ensure that all order sets are part of the new record in telemedicine?
When it comes down to ensuring that all order sets are integrated with new telemedicine records, the EHR teams must prepare the system and ensure the highest standards of security and privacy compliance. In addition, they can troubleshoot the devices for collecting the information and data!
How to start a telehealth business?
There are many important factors to consider when you start a telehealth business such as HIPAA Compliance laws are most essential and they vary from state to state so get yourself verified. Then comes licensing, pricing plans, market research and recommended features for your specific telehealth business model.
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