Learn More About EHR Software
What is EHR Software?
An EHR promises efficiency within a health care organization. Doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals are already run ragged on a minute-by-minute basis; moving from a paper-based environment to a cloud-based one is a boon. This is especially true if the latter exists within HIPAA-determined parameters that help a hospital, clinic, or practice adhere to industry regulation.
Additionally, within the past year and a half, monolith enterprises have been either dipping their toes into or fully diving into the world of EHRs. A quick summary: Amazon has created 1492, a lab dedicated to researching and innovating health care tech. Apple has taken its Health mobile app and turned the volume way up via its Apple Health Records product, which aggregates patient data. Google has released an open-source API that facilitates the sharing of health care data and the interoperability of health care systems.
This is all to say that the EHR scene is popping more than ever. It’s no longer a question of “is it worthwhile to implement such a costly system?" and more a question of “which EHR can stand up to and best adapt to disruptive technology?"
Why Use EHR Software?
Without question, hospitals and medical organizations can benefit from implementing an EHR.
A few of the advantages of using EHRs include:
Better quality of care for patients – EHRs provide health care organizations and professionals accurate and complete patient data, which can be updated easily and quickly. EHRs can also reduce medical errors, in direct contrast to manually inputted patient data. That increase in accuracy helps providers more effectively diagnose patients. EHRs also improve patient and physician interaction and communication.
Centralization of patient data – The data within and purpose of EHRs go beyond so-called "standard" clinical data. EHRs provide hospitals and clinics with dynamic, comprehensive patient-centered records that help health care professionals avoid a siloed, one-appointment-at-a-time overview of their patients. Those records allow more in-depth evaluation, which in turn facilitates more accurate diagnoses.
Reduction of paperwork – Paperless EHR platforms significantly reduce the time and energy spent on manually filling out and processing forms. EHRs streamline and automate routine administrative duties, which in turn translates to increased efficiency and more focused patient care.
Secure sharing – EHRs equip hospitals and practices with the ability to securely share patient information, data, and history with patients, other clinicians, and potentially other health care organizations. The strength of an EHR lies in its ability to integrate patient information from multiple sources, allowing better and more timely decision-making, particularly in critical situations.
Coordination — An EHR’s digital records enables the coordination and collaboration of clinicians across specialties, disciplines, and facilities. Multiple care providers can access a patient’s records, regardless of location. Those records have the capacity to be updated in real time.
Improved charting and documentation practices — Unlike the stereotypical "doctor’s handwriting" joke, EHRs promote legible and complete documentation. They also streamline coding and billing practices so doctors and physicians can better and more easily follow up with patients. Utilizing an EHR can result in reduce
Improved patient/population health – Most, if not all, EHRs come equipped with patient portals and patient comms. With those two elements, EHRs naturally increase patient interaction, cooperation, and transparency with their physician and health care organization. An EHR helps health care professionals spend less time filling out forms, and more time on actually providing patient-focused care.
Efficiency throughout the organization — EHRs reduce redundancy and lower administrative costs by streamlining and optimizing internal workflows. Features such as integrated scheduling (to progress notes and insurance claims) can result in decreased paperwork, quick access to patient data, and a way to identify and address any operational problems.
Who Uses EHR Software?
Medical professionals—doctors, physicians, primary care physicians, solo practitioners, clinicians, and nurses—utilize EHR software to automate manual processes and improve patient care. The main benefits of medical staff and institutions leveraging EHRs are outlined above. Enterprise hospitals experience the most value from EHRs, because they have the resources and finances to ensure the deployment and organization-wide implementation of such a system. However, while smaller-sized clinics and practices may struggle with either the cost of an EHR or the capability to get the most out of an EHR, they’re not completely out of the running as users.
Kinds of EHR Software
EHRs can be split up between on-premise, cloud, and (rarely) hybrid cloud offerings. Mobile applications, available through iOS and Android, are also becoming more and more regular and expected. Another factor that can contribute to different "kinds" of EHR software is the size of the practice or organization that will deploy the EHR. (Aside from solo practitioner/small clinic and enterprise hospitals, however, right now, there are not more granular determinations of EHRs. The EHR industry has not reached the point where specialty-specific platforms are available for mass purchase and implementation.)
However, as defined by G2 Crowd, EHRs are also known as EMRs. As such:
EHR vs. EMR – While EHR and EMR can be, and are, used interchangeably by vendors, a few nuances do exist between electronic health records and electronic medical records. (Notably, for health care professionals and organizations to participate in Medicare/Medicaid Incentive Programs, they must use certified EHR technology.)
Both EHRs and EMRs reduce medical errors, provide instant and real-time access to updated patient information, simplify charting, and increase productivity. Smaller practices’ requirements and needs are usually satisfied by an EMR, especially when it includes familiar EHR components such as billing and e-prescription.
In a nutshell, EMRs are digitized paper charts. They contain notes and information, collected by and inputted by health care professionals. Those same professionals will double back to that collected data for patient diagnosis and treatment. Obviously, EMRs are more valuable than paper records because they allow the tracking of patient data over time and a concerted focus on improving a patient’s overall health care quality. EHRs go beyond that collection and analysis of clinical data. EHRs provide a centralized hub of patient data and history that can, ideally, be shared with any and all interested (professional and relevant) parties. For example, once a patient’s records and authorization are nestled into an EHR, it can follow that patient from specialist/clinician to hospital (regardless of location) to acute care to nursing home.
Personal health records – There is also a new strain of EHRs out there: personal health records. According to EHR Intelligence, personal health records, also known as PHRs, “contain the same types of information as EHRs—diagnoses, medications, immunizations, family medical histories, and provider contact information—but are designed to be set up, accessed, and managed by patients." This goes beyond the patient portal that resides within an EHR. It seems as if PHRs facilitate even more patient engagement, allowing patients to maintain and manage their own health information. Similarly to EHRs, PHRs gather and centralize information from a multitude of sources.
EHR Software Features
Billing – An EHR will either offer an in-platform billing solution or the ability to integrate with third-party billing, invoice, or payment gateway tools. If your chosen EHR bundles in billing capability, then it should facilitate the creation of bills and invoices that the provider can send to patients. Additionally, some billing modules simplifies the checking of patients’ insurance for coverage.
Charting – Charting is a vital part of physicians’ and nurses’ day-to-day duties, which EHRs acknowledge. Most, if not all, EHRs facilitate real-time, non-distracting charting that will ensure accurate and the timely completion of charts. Your organization should look for EHRs that either allow for charting on mobile devices and tablets, or come equipped with (customizable) templates. Some solutions feature dictation capabilities.
Documentation – Documentation is crucial for physicians and doctors to track patient progress and note diagnoses. EHRs help medical professionals easily note exam findings, treatment codes, and other discoveries from a patient appointment. In turn, software that simplifies and streamlines the documentation process—either via templates, dictation and transcription, or plug-and-chug note-taking—helps providers and physicians get access to and leverage patient data and history.
Reporting – Most EHRs integrate with practice management solutions. However, standalone EHRs themselves can provide health care organizations with real-time clinical and financial data, as well as reports on overall practice performance.
Data sharing – EHRs go beyond the simple collection and tracking of patient data. EHRs provide organizations with the ability to communicate patient information across internal systems, departments, specialties, and even other clinics and practices. EHRs help eliminate the time manually spent on entering, re-entering, and sharing patient information.
Patient portal – Effective patient relationship management is a key part of EHRs. That includes streamlining patient communications as well as providing patients with a portal that will help them stay engaged pre- and post- hospital or clinic visit. An effective patient portal gives users access to information such as recent doctor visits, discharge and lab results summaries, medications tracking, patient scheduling, and online payments.
Additional EHR Software Features
E-prescribing – Some EHRs come equipped with an e-prescription module. E-prescribing allows physicians to send prescriptions electronically, automate notifications to pharmacies and patients, and track patients’ drug histories. Some e-prescription modules will even provide health care organizations with a database of drug inventory.
Cloud hosting – Beyond the promise of unwavering security, on-premise EHRs falter when it comes to the convenience of cloud-hosted EHRs. A cloud-hosted EHR provides users with (ideally 24/7) remote access to records, which is crucial to bettering both physician ability to perform and their relationships with patients. Additionally, cloud-based EHRs come equipped with encryption, providing a measure of security for your organization.
Lab integration – Lab integration is an optional feature of EHRs but important if your practice or clinic is dependent on labs and lab results. Lab integration provides your organization with two-way communication, access to research on lab results, electronic monitoring and analysis of lab results, and alignment between charting notes and laboratories.
Trends Related to EHR Software
Improved patient engagement — EHRs generally come equipped with patient portals, which encourage self-service activity. Portals are becoming more and more comprehensive, allowing patients to become fully engaged with hospital services and online physician interaction. The upside of such improved patient engagement translates into a better flow of data and information, improved care coordination on the physicians’ and institutions’ sides of things, and more accurate population health measures.
Blockchain — Blockchain technology and its capability to ensure security and an encrypted audit chain is already well known within the finance and cryptocurrency sectors. In the health care industry, blockchain can better store and safely share medical records as well as equip hospitals with the tools to protect themselves from hackers and malware breaches. What EHR architects will need to do now is anticipate and design the platforms to incorporate such technology.
IT talent — Some EHRs ship consultants and implementers to the hospitals that invest in their platforms. However, that’s only a temporary IT presence. If a hospital or practice wants to reap the full benefits of their EHR systems or handle any technology issues that may arise, then they need to have a qualified IT presence permanently on staff or readily available as an outsource.
Strides in artificial intelligence — In the health care sector, AI goes beyond just automation. AI can be applied to the existing technology and processes for diagnoses, medical imaging, clinical decision-making, population health analytics, and admission and readmission algorithms. Additionally, AI has the potential to thwart claims processing fraud that impacts healthcare costs.
Telehealth — Telehealth is the result of "digital health," which is the intersection of prevalent mobile device use and health care diagnosis and access. Telehealth takes communications technology such as mobile phones, video conferencing, etc., and works to provide health care services to anyone who can use those platforms.
Wearable devices — It’s not just health care providers that are taking advantage of the plethora of health data that patients input into their various wearable devices. Those device makers themselves are embracing their ability to impact the medical records industry.
Potential Issues with EHR Software
The biggest and most well-documented issues with EHRs are their usability, interoperability, and risk of cybersecurity breaches.
Usability – Health care professionals have long complained that EHRs are difficult to grasp and utilize effectively, and that complaint is still a valid issue today. Doctors, physicians, nurses, and therapists are always on the edge of being burned out. EHRs are supposed to make their lives easier, but not if the platforms are clunky, difficult to maneuver, or refuse to play nice with existing workflows.
Interoperability – However, the more interesting issue with EHRs is their interoperability, or, the ability for health care systems to effectively “talk" to each other. After all, if an EHR is supposed to help practices and hospitals draw a complete picture of their patients, then it has to have a proactive ability to centralize information from a variety of sources. That means that EHRs must be able to communicate and align with other information systems that exist within a health care organization. (This is a major challenge for EHRs.) Additionally, interoperability extends beyond systems; health care professionals are humans, after all, and are subject to their own biases and perceptions of the world. EHRs should provide them with an objective solution that helps transmit and share patient data across an organization. When EHRs generate templates or reports that can be misrepresented or wrongly digested, that’s a problem.
Cybersecurity breaches — EHRs must be able to withstand and work alongside implemented cybersecurity measures. Regardless of whether the chosen EHR is an on-premise platform or hosted in the cloud, breaches must be proactively dealt with by health care institutions.
