Why Primary Care Practices Need More Than a Basic EHR
As a primary care physician, you treat patients of all ages for a variety of reasons, f...
Technology is playing a bigger role in healthcare than ever, and Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are a key part of this shift. Practices are using technology to access patient test results quickly and to prevent data silos. Digital solutions can help improve communication among health teams. And at the center often lies in electronic health records (EHRs).
EHRs can transform how you manage and care for patients in many ways. But what stands out is how quickly and easily these systems put valuable information within reach. This action enables you to manage critical patient data, aiding in clinical decision making and streamlining time-consuming processes.
This article reveals actionable ways in which EHR adoption can significantly impact your practice operations and improve patient outcomes.
Key Takeaways:
- Discover how EHRs enhance care coordination, reduce errors, and improve patient safety.
- Learn the significant benefits of EHR implementation in your practice.
- Explore how EHRs promote faster diagnosis and treatment by providing real-time access to patient data.
- Discover future EHR trends and how your practice can be part of the next generation of patient care.
The Role of EHRs in Improving Patient Outcomes
EHRs are all about enhancing patient care quality, so you have the right information at the right time. But it’s one thing to say that EHRs have a direct impact on patient outcomes; it’s another to demonstrate how this happens.
One comprehensive review from the World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews reveals these direct effects, including:
- Improved access to patient information by providing a comprehensive view of a patient’s medical history, such as past medical conditions, medications, and test results.
- Streamlined documentation and record-keeping by providing a central repository for all patient information.
- Reduced medical errors and duplication of tests by providing access to previous test results.
- Enhanced communication among healthcare teams by allowing providers access to patient information quickly and easily, facilitating more effective collaboration.
It’s clear from study findings like these that EHRs enable healthcare teams to make more informed decisions, leading to more effective treatments and improved care quality using technology.
This shift toward digital healthcare not only streamlines processes but also empowers patients to have more access and agency in their own care. Read on to learn how.
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Key Benefits of EHRs for Better Patient Care
EHRs offer many advantages that contribute to superior patient care, impacting everything from coordination between providers to the speed and accuracy of diagnoses. We break down the benefits below.
Better Care Coordination Across Providers
EHRs provide a centralized platform for patient information. This is care continuity across providers at its best. Whether a patient is seeing a specialist or being admitted to a hospital, EHRs allow the patient’s complete medical history to be readily available to everyone involved.
For instance, a patient experiencing kidney issues can benefit from coordinated care between their primary care physician and nephrologist, as both can access the same data, such as urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR) test results. Better care coordination during transitions of care, such as when a patient begins dialysis, ensures that the healthcare team has all the necessary information to deliver safe, accurate, and effective treatment.
For instance, iSalus offers a fully integrated EHR solution for nephrologists that caters to the unique and complex needs of a busy practice. The EHR provides a dialysis reporting feature, for example, that identifies patients who have met the four-visit threshold for dialysis, which is critical not only to the patient’s health but also to the healthcare team’s care plan.
By centralizing patient information, EHRs also reduce duplicate testing. The cost to order a patient test varies by test type and insurance status. For instance, a Complete Blood Count (CBC) that might cost $46 – $125 at a clinic can reach $350 at a hospital lab.
However, by providing a comprehensive view of a patient’s medical history, including previous diagnoses, imaging scans, and medication lists, EHRs allow you to instantly access past results without reordering them, saving valuable time and money.
Reducing Medical Errors and Improving Patient Safety
Reducing medical errors is one of many goals of EHR implementation. Accurate and comprehensive patient documentation guarantees that all relevant medical information is recorded and easily accessible.
For example, medication management with an EHR helps prevent errors by flagging potential drug interactions, allergies, and contraindications. One comprehensive review paper states,
“Research suggests that EHR-digital technology can mitigate medication harm and improve patient outcomes. They can provide real-time support, monitor patients using high-risk medications, and report errors, resulting in more precise and efficient clinical interventions.”
Similarly, EHRs also include timely follow ups and alerts that remind both patients and providers of necessary screenings, vaccinations, and appointments, further improving patient safety and adherence to care plans.
Enhancing Diagnosis and Treatment Speed
EHRs offer tools that enhance diagnostic capabilities. Features such as remote patient monitoring enable you to track vital signs and symptoms remotely, allowing for proactive intervention and preventing acute episodes from occurring.
EHRs also enhance patient diagnosis by providing real-time access to patient data, enabling faster diagnoses and treatment decisions. For example, iSalus offers a fully integrated, cloud-based Specialty EHR and Practice Management solution that provides you with the data needed the moment you open a patient’s chart. View a historical snapshot of patient information, lab results, and medications, all in one location.
The Specialty EHR solution also offers automated Intelligent Intake forms that allow you to:
- Create custom forms
- Assign intake forms
- Upload patient insurance information
- Review patient details
- Merge chart information
This feature enhances diagnosis and treatment speed, as well as practice efficiency.
Supporting Evidence-based and Personalized Care
One of the core benefits of an EHR is that creating an evidence-based treatment regimen, tailored to a patient’s individual needs, is easier when all the necessary data is at your fingertips. By analyzing patient data, including their medical history, genomic information, and social data, you can tailor treatment plans to optimize outcomes.
Moreover, EHRs provide preventive care insights by identifying patients at risk for certain conditions and ensuring they receive the necessary screenings and vaccinations, supporting evidence-based care delivery.
EHRs also offer patient education tools that empower patients to take an active role in their healthcare decisions. For example, these systems can provide links to relevant health information and tools that help patients better understand their conditions and treatment options.
Strengthening Provider-Patient Communication
When it comes to communication with your patients, the stakes are high.
Communication failures can be significant, affecting everything from adherence to prevention, screening, and treatment to undermining the patient-clinician relationship.
EHRs can prevent these oversights by optimizing provider-patient communication through patient portal access. Patient portals allow patients to stay in communication with your practice, view their medical records, request prescription refills, and schedule appointments.
For example, iSalus offers a secure Patient Portal app that provides your patients with 24-hour access to their personal health information from their mobile phone. This improved communication fosters trust and collaboration with patients, leading to better adherence to treatment plans and improved health outcomes. According to a comprehensive review on EHR patient portals:
“It has been shown that patients who are more engaged in decision making and collaboration with health care providers can have better outcomes. Streamlining patient access to medical records plays a crucial role in enabling patients to feel more in control of their own treatment or management of chronic conditions.”
Additionally, tracking health trends with an EHR enables providers to identify patterns and potential health issues early. Once the problems have been identified, healthcare teams can begin to communicate and coordinate treatment plans effectively.
How EHRs Streamline Clinical Workflows
EHRs streamline clinical workflows by automating tasks such as prescription refills, appointment scheduling, and billing, freeing up valuable time to focus on patient care. For example, iSalus offers an automated Appointment Reminder service that can help improve attendance rates by sending email, text, and phone call reminders to your patients.
An Integrated Payments feature is also available, enabling you to accept payments in-person, online, automatically, or via stored payment methods. Offering flexible payment options makes it convenient for your patients to pay for the care you provide.
EHRs also play a critical role in population health management, allowing you to track and manage the health of entire patient populations, identify those at risk, and implement targeted interventions. Additionally, healthcare analytics and reporting provide valuable insights for quality improvement, enabling you to identify areas for enhancement and implement data-driven strategies.
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Security and Compliance Benefits of EHRs
Secure patient information storage and sharing are essential for maintaining your patients’ trust, and EHRs provide a safe platform for this purpose. These systems offer significant security benefits, particularly when they are HIPAA-compliant and adhere to the HIPAA Security Rule.
This rule states that EHRs are built with the administrative, physical, and technical safeguards needed to protect the confidentiality and availability of ePHI (electronic protected health information). EHRs require regular security risk analyses to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities.
Safety tactics often include encryption, access controls, multi-factor authentication, and audit trails. For example, compared to paper files that can be lost or copied, HIPAA-compliant EHRs allow for the secure transfer of patient data between authorized providers, such as from a clinic to a pharmacy.
Future Trends: EHRs and the Next Generation of Patient Care
Whether it’s smarter data insights or advanced automation/artificial intelligence (AI), the next generation of EHRs will transform how you engage with healthcare. For example, the future of EHRs is guaranteed to include even more integration of AI and machine learning (ML) for predictive healthcare, enabling proactive interventions based on data analysis.
One study reveals that integrating ML with EHR clinical and imaging data advances the prediction of major adverse cardiac events. Researchers used the ML algorithm to integrate clinical information with myocardial perfusion imaging data. Their study showed significant improvements in predicting major adverse cardiac events compared with traditional assessments.
A Deloitte report reveals that AI will also help improve the usability of EHRs in the future, allowing for the inclusion and overlay of more types of data (e.g., wearables, Internet of Things (IoT), and drivers of health) with traditional EHR data. These technologies can help generate new insights to keep patients healthy and improve access to healthcare information.
Data will also drive the future of EHRs. An advanced EHR will support access to large amounts of data and enable the delivery of insights at scale, allowing systems to facilitate an integrated care delivery model.
Advanced interoperability for nationwide care coordination will further enhance the benefits of EHRs by enabling seamless data exchange across different healthcare systems. Ongoing improvements in user experience for both providers and patients will also ensure that EHRs remain user friendly and efficient.
Final Thoughts on How EHRs Improve Patient Care
EHRs are making huge strides in healthcare by enhancing care coordination, reducing medical errors, improving communication, and facilitating evidence-based, personalized care.
The key benefits of EHRs highlight their central role in improving patient outcomes, ensuring safer, more efficient, and more patient-centered healthcare. The continued advancement of EHR technology will also undoubtedly lead to further improvements in public health.
If you’re ready to experience an innovative Specialty EHR that improves patient care and provides the unique functionality required by a demanding practice, request a demo of iSalus today!
Frequently Asked Questions About EHRs and Patient Care
How do EHRs improve patient care?
EHRs enhance patient care by providing a centralized, digital platform for patient information. This leads to better care coordination, reduced medical errors, faster diagnoses, more personalized treatment, and improved communication between patients and providers.
How do EHRs help reduce medical errors?
EHRs reduce medical errors through accurate documentation, medication management, and timely alerts. The systems can alert providers to potential drug interactions and the need for follow-up appointments, minimizing the risk of errors that could harm patients.
Can EHRs speed up the diagnosis process?
Yes, EHRs can significantly improve the speed and accuracy of diagnoses. By providing instant access to a patient’s medical history, lab results, and imaging studies, healthcare providers can quickly assess symptoms and make informed treatment decisions.
Are EHRs secure, and how do they protect patient information?
Yes, EHRs are secure. HIPAA-compliant EHR systems incorporate robust security measures, such as encryption, access controls, and audit trails, to protect against unauthorized access and data breaches.