Urology EHR: Are Care Pathways Available?

For years, health care providers and specialists have been fine-tuning care plans and treatment routes that help their patients achieve better outcomes and improved health. For Urologists, managing urinary health while improving patient care has been the focus for many providers along the way. Urologists have run into patients who have remained non-compliant with their medications, unresponsive to follow-up visits, and who continue to lose control of their urinary health. Tools have been introduced into the field to aid Urology providers in their efforts to provide quality care in recent years. Tools like a Urology EHR have changed the way providers visit with patients, document their visits, file claims, and communicate with patients, among other helpful features. This tool is undoubtedly useful for Urology providers, but there is one thing that Urologists need to make sure their Urology EHR has before they choose a vendor. This is the option for Urology care pathways.

What is a Urology Care Pathway?

A Urology care pathway involves an evidence-based framework for a treatment plan that begins with the referral to the Urologists and goes all the way through their follow-up care. These care plans have been established and accepted by other recognized Urology providers and have been formatted for a variety of conditions such as:

1)    Advanced prostate cancer

2)    Renal cell cancer

3)    Overactive bladder

These care pathways make it simple for a Urologists to follow proven treatment plans. The unfortunate part is that the majority of Urology EHR vendors have not customized their software to follow them.

The Benefits of a Urology EHR with Urology Care Pathways:

1)    Consistent Care Process:

Each patient is unique, and their situation is complex and capable of going in directions that are completely unpredictable. But at the same time, it is important that providers have the knowledge of those who went before them readily available. With a Urology EHR that has integrated care pathways, providers have that wisdom right at their fingertips. This helps them to make their care process consistent. They can stick to what they know works for the majority until it does not. That is the great thing about a customizable template, if the care process needs to be tailored to the individual patient, it can be and it is not difficult to document.

2)    Keeps the Patient Informed:

With an initial diagnosis, a patient can feel overwhelmed regardless of how big or how small the situation is at hand. A Urology EHR care pathway helps to show the patient from start to finish what their process will look like. Of course, there is always some ambiguity as to whether or not an individual needs something different. But for the most part, they have a clear picture of their journey in front of them. This helps to not only educate the patient, but give them peace of mind regarding their diagnosis as well as help them feel like they are on top of the issue.

Benefits of Customized Urology EHR:

1)    Adaptability

With care pathway helping providers offer patients consistency and education as well as an evidence-based framework for their treatment, they have several tools at their disposal from their Urology EHR, but there is more. A Urology provider should never settle for less than a Urology EHR that offers them the adaptability they need to offer their patients the individualized attention they deserve. Vendors of Urology EHR will sometimes claim that their Electronic Health Record is the “One-size-fits-all” solution for Urology providers looking for software. That is just not true. Providers need software that offers both consistency and malleability, not one or the other.  With a customizable template, Urology providers can tailor their Urology EHR to the needs of their practice.

2)    Efficiency

In any situation, an expert would not have to dig through their brain to find the information they needed to record the information they were trying to document. This should be true for Urology specialist as well. Another benefit of the customizable template that should be offered in a Urology EHR is that it increases efficiency in the documentation process that has taken way to long in the past with other general Electronic Health Records. Urology providers should document with ease and spend their valuable time with their patients.

Providers should search for Urology EHR care pathways and customizable templates in a quality Urology EHR provider. True Urology EHR software can be customized to include the accepted care pathways established by Urologists to boost consistency, adaptability, and efficiency in a Urology practice in 2019.