Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Incorporating An Electronic Health Record Process Into A Health Care Office

By Jennifer P. Myeers


A lot of health care practices have moved from a standard filing system to an electronic health record filing system due to the many health advantages that it has to offer. This kind of filing system is much easier to use by health care professionals once the transition from the old system to the new one has taken place. Health care professionals have the ability to easily obtain the files, store them in a secure location, and find errors in the records easily when they are in the electronic format.

Electronic health record software is much easier to access since people no longer have to travel down to a file room and sort through hundreds or thousands of different records. Using a secure terminal or computer anywhere in the office or the network, physicians and other health care professionals can quickly access the files that they need. Doctors and other health care workers can save time that they would usually spend looking for files by quickly accessing them and making changes as necessary. More time can be spent with patients or more patients can be seen because a smaller amount time is being spent looking for files.

People can access files even if they do not have the proper authorization when they are saved as hard copies. All files are also kept together, and anyone who has access to the files will have access to all of the files rather than just the ones that pertain to them. Different health care professionals have different levels of security, and don't always have access to all parts of a patient's file. Some workers only have clearance to view certain files, or they may need an access code to look at them, and this can all be managed with software. The files are also stored electronically which means that they can't be misplaced or filed improperly.

With the electronic health record system, mistakes can be found and fixed almost immediately which is another advantage of this type of system over the traditional filing system. Although rare, it is not unheard of that doctors have prescribed a medication to a patient that they should not take because they have mistakenly overlooked something in the file. Software in an electronic prescribing system will automatically bring attention to any drugs that interact with other medications that the patient is taking if the doctor tries to write a prescription. The software acts as a fail-safe in case something is missed.

The benefits of an electronic health record system include giving health care professionals easier and more secure access to patient files. Errors with medical and prescription information are also decreased with this type of system. This type of software has turned out to be more and more popular among many medical practices because of its ease of use.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.