Benefits And Challenges Of The Electronic Health Record

Technology advancement, like Electronic Health Records, has changed the conventional direction of the healthcare industry. Previously, medical data was 100% paper-based documents.

In the year 2003, the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association published an article, where they explained paper record is simple and widely accepted. For sure, the healthcare industry requires a low cost for implementation and support of electronic health can reform the healthcare industry.

In fact, the paper documents the environment of healthcare due to the limited accessibility, lack of acceptance, inability to manage files remotely, and the cost of large data storing. By adopting EHRs, healthcare service providers have organized and accessible health records. Also, they’re supported by various practice improvement tools like computerized prescribing & ordering tools, to deliver more efficient and secure patient care.

After the introduction of Electronic Health Records, doctors and physicians explore all the significant aspects of EHR use, and they recognized, there have been some challenges also. And it’s essential to understand both sides of the EHR solution.

In this article, we would like to discuss the advantages and difficulties of EHR. let’s explore the facts:

Benefits Of EHR

Sol Lizerbram, MD, Co-founder and Chair of the HealthFusion Board says, “EHRs formalized the process and gave doctors the ability to use data to better predict diagnoses, assist in health maintenance, and allow for a much better patient experience than having everything written down.”

Smart solutions like EHR are enhancing data security of patient health information, aiding medical care providers to improve productivity and work-life balance. This solution allows providers to intensify work efficiency and achieve their business goals.

Importantly, it is reducing service costs through diminished paperwork, reduced duplication of testing, improved data safety, and improved health. Let’s check other advantages of EHR solutions.

Accessibility

Since EHR solutions are stored electronically, providers can easily access it from a different location and at different times. Healthcare providers can check a patient’s medical history record whenever they require it. They can track the treatment processes and add their valuable suggestions to increase the efficiency of the care.

Healthcare experts mention, EHR process is a life-saving concept. It empowers providers to get a patient’s full medical history like blood type, allergies, and past medical records that help make the right treatment decision.

E-Prescribing

Patients can receive prescriptions in digital form and avoid indecipherable handwriting. As we all know, it provides a secure healthcare solution including better Pharmacy Workflow, Enhances Patient Medication Adherence, increases Clinical Support for Providers, and Improve Patient Safety. Electronic prescribing is growing rapidly because it has some substantial benefits for health care providers and patients.

Improved Communication And Engagement

EHRs make communication better between doctors and patients. Even though clerical demands can be onerous, EHRs can make communication processes easy that help remote patients also.

EHRs help doctors to communicate with other care service providers and accurately track the treatment plans. EHR web patient portals enable patients to check their health records, medications, radiology results, and progress notes. It allows patents to become more actively engaged in their care journey, and EHR application permits them to save all the records effortlessly.

As we all know, communication can lead to improved care. EHR has alleviated the difficulties of lost healthcare files and missed communications. This solution is more reliable than paper-based methods and record-keeping processes. It reduces the time; doctors can easily find out the previous record, and patients can get relief from repeating an unnecessary test or procedure.

The Challenges

A tool that was initially developed to increase quality and improve communication in the healthcare industry has somehow created a riskier healthcare environment. Many healthcare service providers are still facing difficulty to understand or adopting the new concept, and errors are likely to occur. Let’s check some more challenges in EHR implementation:

Interoperability

Perhaps the most significant problem with Electronic Health Records is the deficiency of interoperability between all disparate systems. To have a full image of a patient’s medical history, and trouble-free communication processes transform the healthcare services.

Culture Problem

While EHR implementation has technical challenges, the most vexing problem is the traditional care culture. To improve the care culture, we need to focus on tech solutions that can easily transform the system and deliver a better solution.

Be Attentive To Team Fatigue

Your execution team will be working under pressure. Actually, they are doing a thankless job. They will face a new challenge before taking a pause and appreciate what they have completed or achieved. If you aren’t attentive about your team, then they can quickly be burned out, and they can suffer from change fatigue.