A look at the efficiency of electronic medical records

Electronic medical records (EMR) are a digital version of the traditional paper-based medical records for a patient’s medical history from one practice. Medical providers and practitioners use it mostly for diagnosis and treatment. They come is form of a software that can be installed into a computer. When a health care giver, a clinic or hospital, implements the EMR software, they generally improve on their efficiency and overall functionality of the health centre.

Since this system comes with automation of some of the healthcare procedures such as diagnosis and patients data analysis, it greatly enhances accuracy. As a result, patients get to receive better care from the precise analysis of their conditions. This minimises the possibilities of making wrong diagnosis and giving wrong medical care. Medical diagnostic process becomes faster and more efficient for example; clinical testing imaging studies can be saved, edited and forwarded to different medical specialties for diagnosis way much faster through the use of EMR software. Patients to a great extent benefit from this feature because the get prompt treatment and better still when their conditions are critical and need urgent attention.

In addition, by using the e-prescribing feature, a lot of errors which normally occur are avoided for example, giving patients wrong prescriptions when the physician’s handwriting is not legible etc., Moreover, it saves time and if the prescription required is not available, the pharmacist can quickly make arrangements to get it before the patient goes for it. The physician can also change the prescription before the patient leaves their office to a medication that is available. This is what efficiency is all about.

The software is time saving. The traditional medical records are stored in shelves or drawers in a filling system. Retrieving a patient’s records may at times take long since the person looking for the records has to physically search for it. EMR on the other hand can be accessed instantly by the simple touch of a mouse. This greatly saves on time that would be used in search for the records and thereby, less time is used to see more patients. It can also translate to more time given to a patient by a physician. In addition, clinical services are enhanced since there is faster retrieval of patients medical records not to mention updating, saving and storage of the same. This does not only save on space but also precious time more so in emergency situations.

Long gone are the days when “accidents” would happen to medical records for example, having unreadable records since someone accidentally poured their morning coffee on them or missing records because the secretary mistakenly shredded them along the annoying letter she got from her stalker and so forth. The medical records have become even more accessible and with reinforced backup. If this does not improve on efficiency, then there is something terribly wrong.

Coordination in different departments is not only easier due to a better and faster communication channel but is also passed in optimum and/or real time. You will definitely agree with the saying that there is nothing that makes a patient happier than getting efficient and timely service that would sometimes save their lives. In addition to this, private practices can reach their potential by implementing the Electronic medical records. The backof house operations and procedures has the tendency of wasting time since practitioners spend a lot of time on them. All of the back of house operations are streamlined by the EMR and therefore, significantly improves efficiency.

In a broad-spectrum, Electronic Medical Records usually have an easy to use interface, customisable templates, lab integration, scheduling, charting, referral letters, billing, just to mention a few. These features generally improve the efficiency, quality of health care given and at the same time, save valuable time that can be directed to caring for the patient.