Key Features of Ambulatory Care EHR to Elevate Outpatient Care
One of the most fast-paced healthcare practices is ambulatory care, which refers to medical services performed on an outpatient basis. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were approximately 1 billion office-based physician visits in the United States in 2019, and the vast majority of these visits were outpatient visits.
So, it requires maximum efficiency during patient encounters. Additionally, a solution is needed to improve the overall quality of care and handle other operations like documentation. An EHR specially designed to meet the needs of ambulatory care is important. While choosing an EHR for ambulatory care, it is important to check out the features.
In this blog post, we have shared what key features of ambulatory care EHR to elevate outpatient care and navigate workflow challenges.
What is Ambulatory EHR?
Ambulatory EHR is a specially customized electronic health records software to meet the needs and requirements of ambulatory care practice. It helps ambulatory care providers manage patient information in a centralized place, streamlines the fast-paced workflow, and improves patient care delivery.
Additionally, It makes it easier for providers to document visits, track health data, and ensure accurate diagnoses.
Also, this customized EHR promotes better communication among healthcare teams and between providers and patients. Using ambulatory EHR, providers and staff members can:
- Streamline the fast-paced daily workflow
- Enhances patient information and care management
- Improves the quality of care delivery
- Makes it easier to share data among other providers and specialists
Related: EHR Adoption in Ambulatory Care: Benefits, Challenges, and Best Practices
Key Features of Ambulatory EHR to Elevate Outpatient Care
Here are some of the key features of ambulatory EHR to elevate the quality of outpatient care. These features assist the healthcare providers and staff members in medical documentation, prescription management, diagnosis decision support, and patient engagement.
1. Clinical Documentation
- Clinical documentation is one of the important and must-have features in ambulatory EHR.
- Outpatient care is fast-paced, so healthcare providers need to efficiently capture all the important information about patient health during encounters.
- This is where the clinical documentation feature is supported.
- It helps to capture and record all the essential information during patient encounters.
- Moreover, it will automatically enter healthcare data in well-organized and structured documentation.
- Some of the health information includes patient history, physical examination findings, diagnoses, treatment plans, and progress notes.
- Then, it’ll make it easier to accessible for healthcare providers across healthcare systems.
2. E-Prescription
- Creating prescriptions is a hassle, moreover, managing it can be frustrating.
- Traditionally, healthcare providers used to prescribe medications to patients on paper, illegible handwritten prescriptions can be hard for pharmacies.
- The E-Prescription feature in ambulatory EHR software makes it easier by digitally creating and managing prescriptions.
- Additionally, the ambulatory EHR connects with pharmacy systems and directly sends the prescription to pharmacies electronically.
- Which eliminates the need for carrying prescriptions.
- The E-Prescription feature also has formulary information and drug-drug interaction alerts.
- It helps healthcare providers make informed decisions regarding prescriptions.
3. Clinical Decision Support Tools
- Clinical decision support tools are a more valuable feature in ambulatory care.
- This feature provides complete guidelines and relevant information regarding diseases and diagnosis.
- It includes various decision supports which include clinical guidelines, evidence-based protocols, drug interaction notifications, diagnostic assistance, preventive care, and screening reminders.
- This tool significantly analyzes patient data in real time identifies potential risks and provides best practices.
- Utilizing clinical decision support tools helps healthcare providers to enhance patient safety.
4. Medical Billing and Coding
- Medical billing and coding is the most complex operation in healthcare, especially in ambulatory care practice.
- The billing feature in ambulatory EHR allows you to capture and accurately bill and code for the services rendered by healthcare providers.
- It can translate clinical documentation into standardized medical codes which are then used for billing, reimbursements, and claim processing to insurance payers.
- Using medical billing and coding can help to increase the accuracy and efficiency of the billing process and ensure reducing the chances of claim denials.
5. Integrated Patient Portal Platform
- Patient engagement is one of the most important aspects of healthcare.
- Ambulatory EHR integrated with patient portal platforms can help and engage patients to be actively involved in their care.
- The Patient portal platforms often have various features which include scheduling, access to health records, Rx refills, lab results, and communication channels.
- It enables patients to access their health records and lab results online once it is available.
- Additionally, it enables them to communicate with their care providers securely, so, if they have any health query, they can instantly ask their providers.
Related: 3 Ways Vozo EHR Can Transform Your Ambulatory Care Practice
Vozo EHR for your Ambulatory Care Practice
Small healthcare practices like Ambulatory care require a more streamlined process and workflow. The EHR solution will help you to digitalize the workflow and streamline the process.
Whether you are looking for a reliable EHR system to implement or decide to switch from the old legacy EHR, Vozo is here to help you.
We are professional experts with years of experience in the field providing quality service for our clients.
Vozo’s EHR system offers a vast range of benefits for the Ambulatory care practice.
- Streamline the Ambulatory care workflow and speed up the process
- Easy transition from paper workflow to digital workflow
- Provides complete access to patient’s up-to-date medical records
- Accurate reports and analytics
- Our EHR system continues to scale as your healthcare practice grows
- 24/7 Tech support to assist you with any needs and requirements
Our EHR system allows you to manage all the patient’s records under one roof reducing the heavy workload for your healthcare practice staff.
Trust in Vozo EHR as we reduce your burdens and let you focus more on better patient outcomes.
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.