Key Benefits Of Electronic Health Records For Hospitals

Providers must strive for dynamic patient-centered records which monitor the treatment continuum throughout the person's lifespan, in sickness and health.

Fremont, CA: Most patients are now accustomed to watching their doctors enter notes into a computer during office appointments. Although the healthcare industry has taken significantly longer than others to transition from paper-based to digital systems, the 2009 Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act gave hospitals and clinical practices a boost in embracing electronic records. The HITECH Act aims to improve overall patient care by giving doctors rapid access to all of the information they need for better diagnosis and patient outcomes.

As of 2014, 76 percent of hospitals in the United States have already implemented a basic electronic health record (EHR) system. However, for hospitals and clinics to fully reap the benefits of electronic records, they must go beyond simply entering basic patient data into systems and making that information a crucial element of managing patient care. Physicians and patients may expect a variety of advantages from moving to a more comprehensive EHR model:

• Comprehensive patient perspective 

Providers must strive for dynamic patient-centered records which monitor the treatment continuum throughout the person's lifespan, in sickness and health. Having a single, ongoing patient record allows for a more holistic perspective of overall health, which aids in diagnosis and long-term therapy.

• Sharing information 

The capacity to communicate information across disciplines, specializations, pharmacies, hospitals, and emergency response teams and having on-demand accessibility to charts via mobile devices enables better and more prompt decision making, especially in urgent situations.

• The power of data

 Continuous data gathering enables better customization of care and helps clinicians address health conditions in a preventative way. Furthermore, 'big data' analytics plus aggregated patient data could notify clinicians of wider health patterns like possible outbreaks and which flu strains are prevalent during every flu season.

• Cost reductions and increased efficiency 

Digital records and integrated communications methods could significantly reduce administrative costs by eliminating transcriptions, physical chart storage, coding, claims management, facilitating care coordination, and shortening the time required for hard-copy communications between clinicians and labs and pharmacies, and health plans.