How EHRs Improve Patient Safety?: 6 Smart Ways
As the whole healthcare world is switching to a digital transformation, the need to improve patient safety with the digital ways of storing healthcare information is of high importance.
Healthcare professionals, physicians, and payers are working towards finding better ways to store health data from patients in a secure and easy-to-manage way. This can be achieved successfully by Electronic Health Records (EHR). EHR holds the real-time health records of patients and is available readily when needed.
If EHR is implemented successfully, the healthcare practices will no longer need to store huge paper records, medical files for each patient; instead, the health information of all the patients in the practice can be made readily available and accessible just with few clicks. As we are all aware of numerous benefits of EHR, here is the list of benefits that shows how EHRs can improve patient safety.
1. EHR Simplifies The Prescribing Medication Process For Patients
It is very common that if a patient feels dissatisfied by the treatment offered by his/her physician, then they wish to change their healthcare provider or practice. In that case, the new healthcare provider should analyze the previous medical records of patients to proceed with the treatments.
Here EHR can help the physicians to know what treatments were previously taken by their patients. This helps you to easily access all your patient’s records and to provide better healthcare delivery. EHR can also help you to check whether a patient has any kind of allergies; so that you can prescribe medicines that are safe for the patient.
2. EHR Medication & Appointment Reminders Improves Patient Safety
The best EHR software can be used to keep track of your patient’s treatment history effectively. Reminders and alerts can be easily shared to the patient’s phone to remind them of their upcoming appointments. This feature will be more beneficial for newborns that require various vaccines over the year. Medication alerts can be shared to their parent’s mobile via secure messaging, Email, or phone call so that they never miss out or forget their child’s vaccine.
RELATED: Automated Appointment Reminders: Why It Matters In 2021?
3. EHR Makes The Diagnosis Process Easier
If a patient’s complete health record is available to the physician while deciding their diagnosis, it can make the entire process much more convenient and save precious time for both the doctor and the patient. EHR also offers advanced features like lab results – you can check with the patient’s recent test results such as blood tests, X-ray’s and more. This saves patients money as they no longer need to take multiple tests to satisfy different physicians.
4. EHR Helps In Providing Faster Treatment For Patients
A recent report showed that the medical practices that use EHRs can able to deliver healthcare very faster to their patients by easily accessing their medical records than those that do not have EHRs. These health records allow physicians and other healthcare provider to view the complete medical history of their patient’s health, which helps them to make an effective treatment plan according to the patient’s needs. EHRs can also help doctors in renewing medical prescriptions and scheduling appointments at a faster rate.
5. EHR Improves Clinical Decision Making
Having a complete health record of a patient’s care encourages you and your staff to settle on better choices for the patient. For instance, a patient going through chemotherapy won’t be recommended sure anti-toxins as these can seriously harm the individual’s health and can bring about deadly conditions. Having a record of the patient’s health information permits specialists to make informed decisions concerning their prescription.
6. EHR Means Ease Of Data Sharing
Electronic medical records make it feasible for clinics or medical care suppliers to create applications that permit their patients to see their health information without any problem. Healthcare applications and patient portal software make it simpler for patients to impart information to their friends and family and different specialists they visit.
If a patient visits different health specialists for different reasons, their treatment plans and medications can undoubtedly be imparted to different specialists also. This encourages you to have a comprehensive perspective on an individual’s healthcare delivery. Informed clinical decisions can help improve patient safety.
RELATED: Role Of Patient Portal In COVID-19 Vaccine Efforts
Summary
Electronic Health Records are truly beneficial for healthcare providers to deliver better care and for patients to become a part of their healthcare. Vozo EHR software helps you to deliver better and faster care for your patients with the advanced technology and features to ensure patient safety.
Ready to implement EHR for your practice? Contact Vozo Today
About the author
With more than 4 years of experience in the dynamic healthcare technology landscape, Sid specializes in crafting compelling content on topics including EHR/EMR, patient portals, healthcare automation, remote patient monitoring, and health information exchange. His expertise lies in translating cutting-edge innovations and intricate topics into engaging narratives that resonate with diverse audiences.