Pages

Tuesday 26 April 2011

Benefits of Electronic Health Records (EHR)

 
An electronic health record (ehr) is a gift of information technology for “IT” has become an indispensable part of our day to day life. “IT” has made it possible to simply our lives; make our work easier and more accurate. To be a part of the trend healthcare industry is going on under rapid transformation. The industry is on its way to do away with the pen and paper system. The industry is very serious and is catching upon the trend of implementing healthcare IT systems like electronic health records (ehr).

Healthcare management is a complex process it starts with the patient visiting the doctor, registration, recording patient medical history, lab reports, allergies, treatment, claims submission, reimbursement and so on. The manual process of recording the medical history is very time consuming and often results into a no. of errors. At times it may also result into time delays when the medical history of the patient is required under emergency situations. Electronic health records (ehr) promises to do away with the flaws of the present manual medical records system.

An electronic health record (ehr) is a process of digitization of the medical records or medical history of the patients. The information is stored digitally with the help of computers and software. The whole process is scientific in nature; the information is stored in a systematic manner. The software provides with a no. of functionality that can be utilized to process the data into some meaningful information, which can be used for effective diagnosis and treatment.

The electronic health record (ehr) enjoys a no. of benefits as against the old pen & paper system:

Accurate Documentation

Scientific Storage of Data

Time Saving

Reduction in Administrative Costs

Improvement in the Quality of Service

Increased Patient Safety

Reduced malpractice insurance premiums

Just like any new approach to doing things, Electronic Health Records (EHR) has its own advantages and disadvantages. However, it for us to “weigh” as to which side is heavier and to go accordingly with it. 

--

0 comments:

Post a Comment