By Shrinivas Kanade

Do you think 24 hour accessibility to your patients’ data is one of the advantages of electronic medical records? Yes! To know more about the advantages of electronic medical records,

Read on…

One of the main advantages of electronic medical records is that it helps in centralizing the data of your patient. Not long in the past, a receptionist working in a clinical practice could leave for the day, only after finding and arranging the records, that are committed to the papers of the patients on the next day’s appointments’ list. If she failed to do so, or if she failed to turn up on time due to some kind of emergency, then what would rule the medical practice. Confusion! She is the one who knew, precisely, which stack of records contains the bunch of papers that represents so and so patient. The use of electronic medical records gets over this problem. Let’s go over the other electronic medical records benefits.

What are the Advantages of Electronic Medical Records?

In its digital form, the electronic medical records offer you an opportunity to run a clean and paperless clinic. If you decide to go digital, you may find that there are two options available to you.

Standalone Software

The first option is to ask a computer programmer to develop a standalone software for you, which you could install in the computer in your office. In this case, your patients’ data, in its electronic form, will be stored on the computer system in your office. You will have to take care of the data. The data safety, proper backing of the data to protect it from getting lost and virus problems will be the responsibility of your clinic, since the data is present at your end.

Online Software

Else, you could use an online EMR software. If you choose this option, your patients’ data will be stored on the Internet. It will be stored in the computers maintained by the IT company which is providing their online software to you, naturally for a monthly fee. This IT company and the computer experts employed by it, will take care of the data and deal with your problems while using it.

Electronic Medical Records

Electronic medical records, which are also referred to as EMR, contains private and medical data related to your patients. It may also contain information, such as their past medical history, substances or drugs they are allergic to, the treatments or medical procedures they underwent in the past. The data may also inform you which medications the patient is currently on and the transcription notes etc. Comprehensiveness in the patients’ data is one of the advantages of electronic medical records.

Speed of Retrieval of Electronic Medical Records

You can retrieve your patient’s records within a few seconds. All you have to do, is to type his or her name in the form that the EMR software has presented to you. Bingo! the records are right in front of you within no time. And the most important thing is that you are not struggling to decipher someone else’s handwriting, in order to read what kind of therapy or treatment your patient underwent in the past. The availability of your patient’s medical records in one place, which can be viewed in detail, is also one of the advantages of electronic medical records.

If you decide to go for online EMR software, you will find that you can access your patient’s data not only by sitting at your office but from anywhere in the world through the Internet. Of course, you must provide it with proper passwords and identify yourself. You can download electronic medical records to your PDA or palmtop and can refer to it as and when it suits you.

Safety

Your patient’s data is important and you have every right to worry about it. Will it be safe in its digital format? Yes, it will be. You must have heard about the computer system crashes and the computer viruses causing damage to the data. These may have made you suspicious about the reliability and safety of the electronic medical records. With proper backup systems and latest anti-virus, you can overcome this obstacle.

Data Format

When you use papers to commit your patients records on it, you do so in the fixed format. The format that is printed on the paper. It is not the case with the electronic medical records. You can key in data in one format and can retrieve it in another, in a form more suitable to you.

Integration and EMR Software

You can digital form of your patients data to the reference information which can be stored on your computer or on the Internet. The EMR software can help you by providing additional information about a drug, such as dosages for children and adults. Which drugs are contraindicated in which conditions and so on. The EMR software can not only help you out with your patient’s data but it can also provide information on the ICD.9, HIPAA, HCFA 1500, and the latest CPT code books. It may also help you in studying a condition by producing a 3-D images for you, by taking input of 2-D images that are already present in your patient’s data. The software also handles the medical transcription notes, as well as SOAP notes, which you can use to your own advantage. The customer support to medical billing services can also be made available to you and your patient by the EMR software. This may result in the speedy settlement of medical billing and claims for you because of the proper co-ordination with the insurance companies over medical insurance. In short, the ability of EMR software helps you centralize your resources can be counted as one of the advantages of electronic medical records.

Electronic Data and EMR Software

Electronic data generated by the systems monitoring your patient, is processed and analyzed for errors by the the EMR software. This software can sound or raise an alert, if it comes across an event needing immediate medical intervention. It can transmit the relevant data in the form of an email or warn you by sending a message to your pager or mobile. It can also accept data from the laboratory analyzer in a electronic form directly and thus, avoiding the chance of erroneous data being fed to it by a computer operator. In case of online EMR software, which you will use the database to store your patients’ data in, and support to it will be provided by the IT company.

Primarily, it is you who is going to benefit by converting to electronic medical records. It will help your staff to be more efficient by saving their time. Your patients’ data in its digital form will always be at your fingertips and not be dependent on the mindless activity of searching for it every day. It seems that the benefits of an electronic medical record (EMR) are nothing but a bag of goodies. But, are they real for you? The decision is yours. With the world going digital, it is up to you to decide, whether to take heed of the advantages of electronic medical records.

Above article published on http://www.buzzle.com/articles/advantages-of-electronic-medical-records.html