Question 1

What is the difference between EHR and EMR​?

Accepted Answer

An electronic medical record is a digital version of paper charts in a health facility. EMR contains medical history, treatments, diagnoses, and other notes made by a particular clinician, surgeon, dentist, nurse practitioner, or other specialists in that hospital or office. When compared to paper charts, EMRs prove remarkably useful since they enable better data navigation over time, easier patient monitoring, timely reminders for preventive patient screenings and checkups, and enhanced patient care.

An electronic health record goes beyond standard clinical information collected in a health facility since it provides a more robust picture of a patient’s care. EHR software systems comprise data from all the specialists involved in a patient’s care, and all qualified clinicians committed to a patient’s care can access the data to provide high-quality service to that patient. One of the key benefits of EHR is its capability to share clinical data with other healthcare providers and follow patients to other specialists or even countries for better decision-making and effective treatment.

Question 2

How does EHR make different staff members work easier?

Accepted Answer

Integrated EHR systems not only improve the overall organizational efficiency but also yield a positive return on investment (ROI). Other well-proven advantages of EHR for health facilities include:

Complete, up-to-date, and accurate information about patients is provided wherever and whenever needed;
Secure access to electronic data is granted to both patients and other approved clinicians for more effective and coordinated care;
Complete patient information helps healthcare providers reduce medical errors, eliminate unnecessary tests, and improve patient outcomes;
Improved provider-patient interaction leads to better experience and safer care;
Streamlined processes that increase staff productivity and improve their work-life balance, preventing professional burnout;
Less paperwork, better data security, and improved health care result in reduced operating costs.

Question 3

How EHR systems improve the quality of care for patients?

Accepted Answer

The advantages of EHR systems for hospitals are obvious. However, creating adequate working conditions for clinicians, providers also serve the interests of patients, and that’s how:

Best EHR software solutions like Vault Medical Records keep a record of a patient’s allergies, chronic conditions, or treatments to notify clinicians about potential conflicts or problems whenever a new medicine is prescribed;
Even if a patient is unconscious, medical EHR software contains a complete patient’s health data to inform clinicians in the emergency department about any medication conflicts or life-threatening allergies and help emergency staff adjust their treatment strategy appropriately;
Electronic health record software solutions ensure better care coordination and eliminate the need to fill out the same forms at each visit that’s especially important for those patients who usually see multiple specialists.

Question 4

What are the 10 steps to successful EHR implementation?

Accepted Answer

Implementing an EHR system in a hospital infrastructure is a multi-step process that influences all the staff members. Having a comprehensive EHR strategy will save you from unnecessary costs, service interruption, and revenue losses.

1. The first step in EHR implementation is to build a dedicated and skilled team to make the process as smooth and seamless as possible. Your team should include a project manager, lead superuser, and lead clinician, but you can also involve administrative staff, medical assistants, and nurses.
2. Make sure the selected software is HIPPA compliant and meets all your functional needs.
3. Analyze your hardware environment and add or update the devices, if needed.
4. Consider the patient room layout to facilitate communication between patient and physician during the appointment. Being able to see the notes, patients may feel safer and more engaged.
5. Once the software and hardware environments are ready, proceed with data migration. This step is critical since no information should be missed or mixed up. To ensure process success, have a data checklist in place or ask the software provider for EHR implementation support.
6. Bring in coherent workflows in place to make all the changes less stressful for your entire staff.
7. Prepare a crisis management and recovery plan to be ready for any emergencies or occasional glitches. Make sure that your clinicians have clear instructions and know what to do when the system is unavailable.
8. Have a solid EHR training schedule and program in place for all the current and future employees to facilitate the onboarding process and minimize stress.
9. Consider various EHR implementation strategies and decide which one is better for your organization. Do you want to roll out the entire system with all the components on the same day? Or do you want to integrate them incrementally, starting with specific practices or departments?
10. Get feedback regularly and listen to your staff and patients for continuous improvement.

Question 5

EHR implementation checklist: how to measure success of EHR implementation?

Accepted Answer

Evaluating your EHR healthcare system implementation is a critical stage of a digital transformation process that helps you realize the EHR’s full potential, achieve the desired goals, and continue improving your workflows. During the evaluation, it’s important to make sure that your staff productivity is left intact and all the work processes are running smoothly. Additionally, you should endeavor to detect team training needs, interface issues, and unsettled vendor questions.

Staff productivity is the main quality criterion on the EHR evaluation checklist, and to evaluate it, you can either compare the number of visits per day before and after the electronic health record implementation to get the so-called ‘raw volume.’ Or you can analyze the total billings or receipts deposited within one month, divide by the overall number of visits during this month, and get the average cost per visit. These figures should be compared with the pre-implementation values to assess the current intensity of service.

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