How EMR Technology Can Be Beneficial to Both Patients and Doctors

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EMR is an acronym for Electronic Medical Record. An electronic medical record is the future of medical documents. EMRs are stored on a computerized system of record keeping and access that can be used by individual health care providers in a single physician's office as well as by doctors and nurses in hospital. The idea is that these providers all share a common database, which makes medical record sharing much more efficient and accurate between doctors and hospitals. Electronic medical records allow users to store, retrieve and manipulate data for a patient.

There are many advantages of EMR to health care providers including:

-Quick access to patients’ records
-Immediate medical record updates
-Complete record in single place - including x-rays which can be scanned and transferred to -the patient’s chart, lab reports and consultations.
-Easy to provide record to a consultant
-Reduced cost of storage
-Electronic sending of prescription to patient's pharmacy
-Faster and more efficient diagnosis and treatments.
-More convenient data trail; paper medical records are often incomplete, but many EMR -systems will not let you sign out without inputting information. Therefore, the information is entered effectively.

Medical audits are frequent in a health provider setting. Insurance companies, government agencies and internal committees all need access to medical records. Since the entire record of a single patient is in one place with the EMR, the audit process is significantly easier. The use of electronic medical records can improve the quality of care patients receive by reducing the number of redundant or unnecessary tests and procedures ordered.

Quite a number of health care providers feel that the EMR enhances their ability to give patient care, especially in emergency situations. This is because they have instant access to medical records that contain vital information such as medication records, laboratory results, EKGs and other vital information through their smart phones, PDAs, or Wi-Fi notebook at virtually any location.

In a clinical setting, a physician or other health care provider must code the diagnosis and visit level. Busy clinics are almost always behind on their patient schedule, so the extra paperwork often gets put off until long after the patient has left. This can lead to incorrect coding or inaccurate charges. An EMR system has all the information in front of the doctor, so if he checks a procedure and a visit level it automatically posts to the account. This makes billing faster, and eliminates the need for office staff to input from a paper record. This reduces errors for the same reason and makes the billing operations less expensive and more accurate.

One other significant effect of the EMR is compliance with HIPAA. Employees’ access is versatile, so staff members can be allowed access only to the information they need to access and edit. Thus, a receptionist for example, will not be able to see a patient's diagnosis.

The advantages of an EMR to health care for patients include:

-Appointment scheduling made easier
-Patients submit the reason for the visit, as well as preferred days and times
-Office staff easily review and schedule online
-Pre-registration and patient interview process
-Patients fill out the practice's registration and health history forms, which are customized to record patient's HPI and clinical history before the appointment
-Office staff have patient information organized before the patient arrives, which shortens the visit
-Personal health record management
-Patients have a convenient and safe way to manage and share medical history
-Lab result review
-Patients receive alerts when lab results and tests are complete
-Clinicians can supplement results with interpretations and comments
-Prescription refill requests
-Patients communicate problems or issues with current medications
-Clinicians respond to patient questions online
-Bill payments
-Patients review invoices and pay bills online
-Online resource library
-Patients have access to educational handouts and videos to help manage their health

Already, some EMR systems can interface via modem with diagnostic equipment that allows physicians to see, in real-time, a patient's progress.

A single, complete, patient medical record, stored electronically and available to only those who are authorized to view the record or a part of the record enhances patient care, reduces costs, and generally makes the health care system more efficient.