6 Reasons Your Office Should Switch To EHR Software

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention explains that 72% of healthcare facilities in the United States have switched their primary form of record keeping to EHR (Electronic Health Record) software. Take a look at the following 6 reasons your office should join them.

1.  Fewer Errors

With traditional record keeping, information sometimes has to be repeatedly recorded. A patient's information might need to be entered into the system upon registration at the medical facility, and then again by their attending doctor, and then again by the billing department. 

EHR software is web-based, so data entered once becomes available anywhere it's needed. As the registration department enters patient information, it is immediately available to the patient's doctor, the billing department, or on any other devices on the network that meet the set privacy restrictions.

Fewer repeat entries means fewer human errors and less time spent identifying and attending to those errors.

2.  Better Communication

Not only does EHR software provide better in-office communication, it provides better inter-office communication, as well. Records can be shared with and viewed by other offices with the simple click of a button, or touch of a screen.

Does a doctor at your facility have an unresponsive patient whose treatment depends on past symptoms? No problem; as long as their former physician also uses EHR software, the doctor can view the patient's records immediately from their own EHR software-enabled device.

3.  Better Response Time

First responders can use EHR software to inform emergency room physicians of their patients' conditions before they even arrive. As mobile responders enter the information they've acquired on a patient, your facility's emergency care team can access that information and be ready and waiting for whatever situation happens to be coming in the door. 

Real-time display of as much information as is available on a patient can shorten the response time of your emergency team and lead to faster, more effective treatments.

4.  Helpful Tools

EHR software packages can be totally customized to meet the needs of your practice. Whether your office is a general care facility, neurology center, podiatry clinic, or any other specialty practice, EHR has up-to-date virtual tools and research-based guides to assist physicians in their treatments and diagnoses. 

When doctors have thorough patient backgrounds, more extensive resources, and tools to assist their decision-making, the result is more accurate diagnoses and more effective treatments.

5.  Secure Privacy Settings 

While the privacy of traditional healthcare record keeping is protected by HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), EHR software adds an additional level of protection by incorporating access controls, encryption codes, and audit logs on who accesses patient information.

An employee using traditional patient record keeping could commit a HIPAA violation by simply leaving a folder in the wrong place. That same employee, if using EHR software, would find it nearly impossible to divulge private patient information to someone who was not allowed access to it. 

6.  Patient Trust

What does all of this mean to the patients? It means that they can place greater trust in their healthcare facility. They feel connected to their physician as he or she demonstrates an effective application of past symptoms to current medical concerns.

They feel as though their doctor sees the entirety of their overall wellness, as opposed to viewing them as an individual case number.

Many offices are switching to EHR software because it creates a better experience both for their physicians and the people they treat. It's more than health record tracking; it's a whole new approach to the way in which medical establishments provide health care to their clients.

For more information about EHR software, check out the site for Practice Studio.