There are several tools and services that organizations have provided for the healthcare sector. If you are a healthcare practitioner, you’ve likely heard of HL7 (Health Level 7), CDA (Clinical Document Architecture), CCD (Continuity of Care Document), DICOM, CDSS (Clinical Decision Support System), Electronic Health Records (EHR), Electronic Medical Records (EMR), and other acronyms.
A variety of these services are providing valuable contributions to the healthcare sector. For example, DICOM uses tags to store patient information, and healthcare data management systems improve health outcomes and help make decisions. However, most newcomers to the sector believe that EHR and EMR are equivalent. In reality, they vary in numerous ways. The names are interchangeable yet serve distinct functions.
People often think of the electronic medical record, or EMR, as the better digital version of a patient’s chart. When it comes to a patient’s health, however, electronic health records (EHR) show a more complete, long-term picture by combining information from multiple healthcare providers. In addition, it includes the patient’s medical history, demographic information, and other data. Let’s take a closer look at the advantages of EHR and EMR in the healthcare industry.
How do you define EMR?
Some things that could be in a patient’s electronic medical records are their allergic reactions, vaccination schedules, medical histories, and diagnoses. EMR emphasizes the treatment of medical issues carried out by a single practitioner. These files are the electronic equivalent of hospital and clinic paper charts.
Electronic medical records are more important than paper ones because they let doctors find patients for screening and keep track of data over time. In addition, Electronic Medical Records improve treatment and diagnosis and support medical practitioners in making decisions.
Advantages of EMR in Healthcare
EMR gives medical practitioners a more accurate picture of a patient’s health. Additionally, it enhances communication between the medical team and the patients. After looking at medical data, it was found that electronic medical records cut down on the number of tests used to measure how well healthcare worked.
When utilized to manage chronic diseases, it improves health outcomes. It increases productivity and frees up staff time to focus on patient care. It lowers labor expenditures for overtime and operational costs. Other advantages of choosing a suitable EMR include the following:
- Allows for Remote Work from Anywhere
EMR solutions are designed with HIPAA compliance in mind and get software updates regularly. The patient’s record can be viewed anywhere without an internet connection if kept in the cloud. It enables remote monitoring of the patient’s condition.
- Increases Billing and Coding Accuracy
The introduction of digital technology has simplified several aspects of healthcare operations. EMR gives you an integrated system that makes billing and coding easier and saves your physical business space.
It lessens the team’s efforts. The personnel won’t have to enter the same information twice, for example, increasing productivity.
- Improves services for everyone.
With the right platform, you can spend more time with patients during a visit. Specialists in health care can get to the patient’s lab results, treatment plans, and medical notes with just one click.
Additionally, the staff might do a better job of handling administrative tasks like billing and appointment scheduling.
- No requirement to launch a separate system
The appropriate EMR selection could improve patient care. For example, integrating an EMR with a lab can make it faster to send requests to the lab. The workers won’t have to access a different system to review the outcomes.
Problems with Using Electronic Medical Records (EMR)
There are some good things about electronic medical records for the healthcare business, but there are also some bad things about this technology.
- Devote Time to the training required for EMR
The healthcare sector has seen several changes as a result of technological innovation. People who need more training may need help with these frequent changes to the working module.
EMR software can be frustrating for doctors and nurses because the software chosen needs to be built to meet the needs of professionals or be flexible enough to fit the way the office works.
When weighing the pros and cons of the EMR, think about how easy it is to use and get around the patient portal. You may also need to devote extra effort to educating EMR trainers.
- Concern for Safety
Another disadvantage of adopting EMR is that anyone can easily access the information. Unfortunately, countless data breaches have occurred recently, particularly in medicine.
The medical industry has suffered a significant loss in protecting patient information confidentiality due to insufficient staffing or poor software practices.
It is recommended that you select EMR software that is cloud-based. If you are new to this field, here are a few things to remember about privacy and data security in healthcare.
- Security Threat from Cyber Attacks
Cybercrime is a concern since cloud-based EMR systems hold the private data of your patients. Hackers and other hostile attackers may try to break into the system to get private information they can use to commit fraud, such as identity theft or other crimes with similar goals.
- EMR could be expensive
Costs can be high for EMR systems. Remember that the price will change based on the features and functions your clinic or hospital needs. There are a lot of EMR systems on the market right now, and they all do a lot of different things. But only some of those functions are necessary for your company.
What is electronic health records (EHR)?
EHRs work like EMRs, but their main goal is to keep track of and store information about a single patient across different platforms. It lets information about a patient, like historical records, demographics, and other data, be moved to a different environment.
These technologies are made with a bigger picture in mind and allow the patient and the doctor to share information in real-time. It improves healthcare by enabling quick access to patient records for more effective care. All across the world, hospitals and clinics use EHRs extensively. It is a computerized version of the patient’s history but also focuses more on their medical background.
It facilitates decision-making by enabling providers from various healthcare organizations to access information. Electronic health records’ effectiveness depends on the data they hold and how it is shared. Everyone involved in patient care, including nurses, emergency rooms, and others, has access to an EHR. Additionally, it is immediately available to providers in all health organizations.
What are the benefits of Electronic Health Record (EHR)?
1. Less Storage Problems
There would be fewer storage concerns if there were less documentation. The employees don’t have to spend time looking for the documents because the information is instantly available. It enables information sharing that results in high-quality care and better decision-making. Additionally, this program automatically sends reminders for early appointments and screenings.
It also helps patients deal with their health problems and actively participate in their care. When misreading paper prescriptions, it’s possible to administer the incorrect medication.
2. Improvements in Patient Care and Productivity
The ability to handle patient records centrally and have faster access to patient data from anywhere. Quicker and more traceable communication with pharmacists and insurance companies.
The unique EHR features increase productivity by saving time. It promotes better management of chronic illnesses and improves coordination among healthcare professionals.
3. Management of Results
An EHR ensures that tests can be done once and lets doctors get lab results, other reports, and X-ray pictures. The systems prevent therapy delays and encourage greater patient involvement.
4. Better Patient Information
Electronic files were first made to replace paper medical records because they were easier to store and find. However, they also have several other benefits. One benefit of keeping records electronically is that sensitive information can’t be stolen, lost, broken, or changed. Digital documents can also eliminate typos and errors caused by difficult-to-read handwriting.
Doctors can change information about a patient in real-time so that other doctors can see an accurate, up-to-date patient file. Every doctor or specialist involved in a patient’s care can be reached through this electronic record. When a patient changes healthcare provider or visits a new doctor, it is highly beneficial to the new doctor to access the patient’s complete medical history from the beginning of their care.
The drawbacks of electronic health records (EHR)
1. It Cannot Be Used with Other Systems
People have noticed that electronic records are only sometimes shared with the people who need to see them. Because of how Medicare and Medicaid pay for things, this problem will be harder to solve.
2. Concerns About Privacy and Cybersecurity
Hackers may attack any computer system, and EHR systems are no exception. Because patient health information is one of the most vulnerable types of data, healthcare providers must make sure that their EHR systems have a strong data security policy. As a result, selecting a HIPAA-compliant EHR, CCHIT, ONC-ACB, and HL-7 interfacing is critical.
3. Clinical exhaustion caused by EHRs
Burnout caused by EHRs is a genuine and severe concern among practitioners. Increased expectations for data entry within an EHR system cause EHR-related fatigue among clinicians. Because of this, studies show that having to enter more EHR-related data is linked to less job satisfaction and burnout.
Conclusion
While electronic medical records software lets doctors and nurses share patient records with other professionals no matter where they are, it also gives doctors and nurses digital charts of their patients. In other words, EHR gives a more complete picture of a patient’s health than EMR, which only shows a small amount of data about the patient.
You can upload patient data to an EMR, including information on prescription drugs. Appointments can also be made using it. EHR enables remote collaboration and patient care activities by healthcare providers and e-prescribing. Some healthcare workers have started using the terms “EMR” and “EHR” interchangeably, which is shocking. Electronic medical records are meant to be used only in hospitals and clinics.
References
H. (2020, June 20). How are EHR & EMR Making a Strong Impact on Healthcare Industry? | Covetus Technologies Pvt Ltd. https://www.covetus.com/blog/how-are-ehr-emr-making-a-strong-impact-on-healthcare-industry#