Electronic Medical Records- Advantages And Considerations Of An Emr System

Fewer than 10% of hospitals and only about 16% of primary care physicians use electronic medical records (EMR's). However, physicians will be incentivized when they do (and penalized if they don't) set up a Medicare and HIPAA compliant EMR system by 2011 according to the HITECH Act.

It makes for good business and better patient care to implement an EMR system. In addition to the incentives, following are 10 advantages of a good EMR system:

- Eliminate errors associated with missed drug allergies

- Automate task management- This will help make sure that lab results, authorizations, health maintenance and referrals are complete in a timely manner.

- Safer prescriptions- When you're working with a drug database that contains medications and warnings about unsafe drug interactions, you'll write safer prescriptions more efficiently.

- Chart review- Progress notes, medication history and diagnoses can be reviewed quickly and easily.

- Create legible documentation to improve accuracy

- Save time- Eliminate time consuming and sometimes incorrect manual data entry errors.

- Access Records- Your patient records will be accessible 24/7 via secure, real time data entry. This includes being able to access the records on a PDA or laptop anywhere in the country.

- Reduce EMR coding errors- When you have the capability to automatically check Medicare's Local Medical Review Policy, coding errors will be caught and can be easily corrected.

- Reduce coding denials- By using the complete coding database including ICD, CPT, and HDPCS, the claim is less likely to be denied.

- Stay Compliant- Having an EMR system ensures you'll be compliant with the Health Insurance and Accountability Act and HIPAA regulations.

EMR systems assist the health care team in coordination care. A person with complicated health issues may be seeing several specialists. It can be easy to confuse the patient with contrary instructions or advice. When one EMR system is used, everyone on the health care team will be aware of other team member's actions and recommendations.

That brings us to the next point. There are many EMR systems. So, when considering a system keep in mind that you want to have only one system for the facility. For example, if the hospital and primary care doctor use two separate systems, they may not interact. As a result complete records may not be available to everyone.

Finally, when putting in a system, remember there may be quite a learning curve for those who will be updating it especially if doctors or nurses are unfamiliar with technology. Set up a good training program and allow for that time.