It’s Time for a New Kind of Electronic Health Record
How Next-gen Electronic Health Record Can Make Your Life Simpler
Change is constant. This applies to the field of patient data whether it is handled by individual doctors or by large hospitals and healthcare services providers across the country. From storing patient records in Excel sheets to database systems the world of patient data records has progressed to electronic health records. Even within this we have different types of electronic health record systemssuch as one hosted by individual physicians known as electronic medical records, remotely hosted electronic health record softwareand remote systems accessible to a large number of users.
However, what distinguishes these existing electronic health record systems is that they are passive or historical, simply maintaining a record of the patient’s illnesses, diagnostics and treatments at one or more facilities. This is good but proves to be a stumbling block when there are major issues like a pandemic where other parameters come into play such as preventive and proactive measures to identify vulnerable populations, keep track of infected individuals, their recovery rate, their specific conditions and reactions to treatment and data to take steps to prevent spread. There are blocks such as high cost, excessive documentation and lack of user friendliness in currently existing EHR systems. Most of these focused more on the administrative and financial side with the medical side added on as an afterthought. These systems also imposed additional work burden on personnel. The Covid pandemic worldwide brought out these deficiencies and paved the way to introduce changes to electronic health record systems for the future.
It is time for a change to the electronic health record systems and the way they are implemented and used.
In fact, according to EHR Intelligence, the use of EHR in July, 2020 increased by 2.06% compared to the pre-pandemic times.
Future developments in electronic health record softwarecould and should include various advancements as detailed below.
Structural technical underpinnings
Future EHR software applications should have solid technical underpinnings to incorporate latest advances in IT technologies such as:
Algorithms need to be incorporated into medical EHR softwareto combine various case conditions, interconnected health issues, treatments based on patients’ individual situations, flexibility for healthcare workers to step in as may be needed according to the situation but do it automatically and speedily with minimal human intervention.
Such futuristic electronic health record ehrsolutions would also have advanced decision support and workflow logic to remind team members through a variety of channels about patients, available plans and facilities for fast action.
The futuremedical ehr softwarewill be able to fluidly deliver analytics for individuals and for populations within specific geographic regions and to have predictive capabilities as regards spread of a disease.
Intelligence at the core
As they stand current EHR software applicationsare focused on maintaining past data about patients, their activities and particularly the revenues side. Incorporation of intelligence into such EHR systemsdoes not pose a big challenge given the voluminous amounts of data sets that can be used for machine learning to facilitate predictive capabilities. It could, for example, analyze variables such as whether a patient is following a treatment routine, their deviations and possible outcomes and suggest possible steps to remedy this kind of situation. Importantly, futuristic electronic health record systems should be able to analyze and deliver suggestions to busy doctors so that they can put such suggestions into practice instead of wasting time in thinking about individual problems. Indirectly, analyzing patients in bulk who are infected with a specific disease could show up peculiar conditions that would be missed by most doctors treating individual patients. Real time big data analytics needs to become part of the overall electronic health record system to be used worldwide or countrywide, similar to the airlines reservation system in which all stake holders can get information in real time. This also has implications in disease detection, spread and preventative measures.
The question of access
Though electronic health records are available for sharing by healthcare service providers, access still remains limited. The issue of accessibility needs to be addressed considering that 66% of users search for information on the internet and 88% of appointments is booked via phone or other digital means. Electronic health record systems can take a leaf out of how businesses manage their communications and manage customers by providing remote multi-channel access across various devices with fluid crossover from desktops to mobiles as and when needed, both for patients and doctors.
Technologies to incorporate are natural language processing, voice recognition and IoT to further broaden the scope of accessibility.
The question of accessibility also leads to standardization and uniformity of electronic health record systems as well as data protocols for glitch-free use and operation.
Accessibility also raises issues of security that can be addressed using blockchain technology for validation, data security, claims, authentication and prevention of insurance frauds.
Multiplicity of plans
Health care services would vastly improve and patients would benefit if future electronic health record software were to incorporate the facility to enable providers to prepare plans for various contingencies.
Population health management
Instead of considering a single patient, the future electronic health record systems can help providers to set up plans for populations based on a set of parameters relating to disease, age, gender and economic drivers. Data can be gathered through various devices like smart watches and IoT devices and providers can take inputs to devise flexible plans.
Health information exchange
Interoperability is a part of EHR but needs to be improved to give immediate access to any health care services provider, especially in cases of emergency.
Training
The more sophisticated a medical health record solution becomes in the future the more complex it is likely to be and it will likely involve a learning curve. Service providers in the healthcare segment would work alongside solution providers to give training to bring users up to speed on 5G technologies, AI’s benefits, IoT and wearables and how to use the system to derive the maximum benefit. After all, sophisticated electronic health record software is like a sophisticated car or aircraft—one must know how to use it or it will be practically of little use. It pays to join hands with the right vendor who considers all these aspects when you decide to go for medical ehr software.
Enhance patient engagement, improve accessibility, and leverage standardized processes. Get medical EHR software now!
Future of Electronic Medical Records: Experts Predict EMR Trends in 2022
With the advent of 2020, the world has seen some surprises. The COVID-19 arrival has shown how vital and valuable digital solutions are in solving the healthcare IT challenges. EHR and Electronic Medical Records Software have revolutionized the healthcare IT system with their process and techniques. But after 2020, automation has changed the picture.
The Electronic Medical Record (EMR) software is the tool for a completely paperless process concerning the patients, which is stored in an electronic form. The EMR are more efficient than hard-copy patient charts as they eliminate human efforts with automated data capture techniques for improved workflow. The EMR market can stimulate growth to be worth $60.70 billion by the year 2026, indicating the growing requirement for improved patient care and technological advancements.
Before delving into the upcoming trends to paint the future of EHR Software, have a glance at the interesting facts:
66% of software users search for medical concern information on the web.
88% of physician appointments are scheduled via phone calls.
With pandemic hitting now and then worldwide, the gradual switch to virtual health has become a boon. This has enabled the Electronic Health Record and Electronic Medical Records software to advance in leaps and bounds. Soon the EMR Companies will focus on creating software that is a value-based model along with a volume-based model as well. Let us look at the EMR Software trends to keep an eye out for in the future.
Accessibility
There would be a continued trend towards accessibility in EMR, both accessible for mobile and software. The main thing that holds back EMR is accessibility. The EMRs are very expensive, almost six or even seven figures for the total software price. This price can be cut down in the case of large hospitals and multi-facility networking hospitals with the help of government incentives, but that is not the case with the smaller practices.
Integration and Interoperability
Another issue with the Medical EHR software and EMR Software is their lack of capability with system integration. During any patient visit, the hospital needs to fetch the records from the outpatient practices, and other hospitals also need to get the full health records. This is why EMR accessibility would remain the top priority for every EMR company. This would reduce the manual work for the physicians and hospital staff to enter patient data, upload reports and scans or figure out crucial patient data.
Ease of Use
It is not easy for an individual EMR to fetch the data from the other EMRs. This is why there is a gap between fetching the data and the non-capability to do so. This is why there is a need for more easiness while navigating the data from one system to another. Despite having so many technological advancements, the EMR vendors face a tough time fetching the data.
Need A System for Accurate Data Capture
Every EMR and EHR need the protocol to capture data accurately and precisely. This would not only help generate better results but also eliminate human errors that might happen otherwise. Since these EMRs cover the entire patient’s historical data, capturing and saving the relevant and recently updated information is vital in the minimum possible time. This has enhanced the healthcare service digitization and will improve data integration with various techniques from multiple sources. These sources might include the mentioned but are not limited to point-of-care devices, wearable devices, and the cloud.
An Increasing Demand for Robotic Process Automation
As the EMR market is experiencing a gradual switch to automation, the EMR Vendors need to gain momentum with the trend. And with Robotic Process Automation (RPA), this would be further developed while maintaining the required accuracy by reducing the manual needs.
Standardization
The best way to legitimize the use of the EMR software is standardization. In this case, the EMR companies must provide some extra features and functionalities while maintaining the standards and regulations. And this standardization is not only required for data and functionalities but also E/M Codes, charge captures and more. Standardization will require inclusivity of changing dynamics as well. This will undoubtedly influence the EHR Vendors to develop their products and maintain their accessibility and strength.
Patient-Centric Engagement
To grow your EHR and EMR products, patient engagement is an essential part of the process wherein patient outreach and content creation is the positive add-on. Patient data and engagement is critical in data storage and analysis. This data can be collected from wearable intelligent devices or mobile devices.
However, wearable intelligent gadgets have become the talk of the town as this would provide excellent insight into the patients’ health. Patient engagement enhancement can also be done by sending appointment alerts and subsequent appointment reminders, and updating patient data from varied sources will reduce time and human efforts while improving patient engagement.
AI & Voice Recognition
In the healthcare market, IoT has seen a massive surge in usage. Several practices are looking to integrate IoT with AI features, which will help the provider diagnose the issue accurately and identify the patient health trends. Many EHR vendors are looking to implement and execute this feature in their EHR software. Along with this, Natural Language Processing (NLP) integration will improve provider/physician efficiency. This will also remove the language barrier as the AI and IoT systems will use natural spoken language in their designs.
The IoT-enabled healthcare market is expected to surge from the 2020s $50 billion to nearly $135 billion by 2025.
Concluding the Article
In the coming years, the industry will spectate the EMR and EHR products and services change for good. This change must continue putting pressure on the industry while changing and adapting for its sound. In the coming half the decade, the healthcare IT industry will see unprecedented transformations along with the required digitization changes.
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Looking for an in-depth idea of the EMR Trends and their adaptation? Connect with the experts here!
Top 5 Reasons to Use Integrated EHR and Medical Billing Software
The process of medical billing and practice management has always been a time-consuming task in the field of clinical practice. Undoubtedly, the EHR systems have reduced and simplified healthcare providers’ human efforts while streamlining their working processes effectively. This is why the healthcare industry is changing, and so are the health providers’ services. They have now started to look for better systems to manage their practice. A recent report says that 89% of providers have agreed that the EHR forms the core of their practice and dominates their decision-making process for selecting a management system.
And this is not all! With simpler EHR, the search and need for intelligent medical billing solutions has also become challenging which has been made easier with its integration with EHR. This integration is a boon with numerous advantages.
Let us delve into the obvious but unsaid benefits of integrated EHR with medical billing software. But before starting, let us also understand what an integrated EHR and medical billing system are.
An Integrated EHR and Medical Billing System
The Electronic Health Records (EHR) integration is defined as the process of accessing medical records seamlessly across all the electronic software solutions. For medical billing systems, this process might look a little complex and requires the HL7 interfaces to exchange the parameters like demographics, patient chart details, charge codes, encounter sheets, patient notes, billing cycle, and more. This would ensure that no data is duplicated and is seamlessly merged with the existing EHR system.
Over the years, integrated EHR and medical billing system received immense popularity. In fact, according to a recent report produced by Fact.MR, the EHR market is expected to rise up to US $23.78 billion in 2022 and anticipate a positive CAGR of 4.5% and attain a value of US$41.8 billion by 2032
The US healthcare providers lose $262 billion annually due to claim denials. The primary reasons for such claim rejections and denials are claim form errors, code mismatch, and missed claim submission due dates but are limited to these. The claim form errors constitute around 40% and 80% of medical bill errors and are the most common reason for claim denials.
These issues have majorly surfaced due to manual data input, improper software settings, and untrained staff, which is common in otherwise healthcare billing software. With the help of electronic medical billing software with EHR, the providers can:
Maintain patient data at one location.
Set notifications for claim submission as per the deadlines.
Set the coding and clinical documentation in one place.
Integrating healthcare medical billing systems into your EHR system would avoid the bulk of manual work like entering the exact details into two different programs and task redundancies, further preventing manual errors, coding errors, and more.
With a comprehensive EHR solution combined with medical billing and coding software, it’s time to improve reimbursement rates.
Improved Interoperability
To avail of the federal incentive programs, the providers and hospitals must prove the meaningful use of certified EHR technology across the market. By integrating the EHR with practice management billing software, the providers are improving patient care and data security while maintaining data centralization.
The term interoperability is not only about seamless communication between external systems; it can also be used to maintain data in one centralized system and seamlessly enable the claim filing process. With the EHR billing integrations being highly interoperable, this allows data sharing with providers and practitioners with access rights. This enables the sensitive information to stay confidential while the data and its analysis allow the third parties for patient care and improvement purposes.
This interoperability reduces the data entry check-points and human errors at the most. A robust and flexible centralized system prevents security breaches while allowing providers to handle sensitive patient information without hiccups.
Reduced Billing Workloads
With an integrated EHR and medical billing software, the medical billing specialists would spend less time filing claims. With an integrated system, the coding and documentation are directly fetched from EHR, which saves the time of copying the data. The system will also prompt the physicians to complete these activities even during patient visits. This would reduce the after-visit work for the providers and billing staff.
There are many small-level hospitals and providers wherein the costs are only increasing due to these billing complications. This is why many medical billing software companies have switched to medical billing software for small businesses while easing the process of coding and documentation with claims submissions on a timely basis.
Reduce Coding Errors and Paperwork
With human comes human errors!
With the integrated EHR software with billing, the patient data will be transmitted to the billing system automatically, which will let the EMR Medical Specialists generate cleaner claims. This removes the human error chances while developing billing sheets and entering codes, enhancing the turnaround time.
The integrated EHR with billing software will also provide rest to the clinical and healthcare staff who are more or less dedicated to filling the forms and performing the claims process. This reduced workload will enable them to focus on providing better healthcare services which was otherwise not happening.
Patient Satisfaction
Patient satisfaction is one of the primary aims of any healthcare provider. Billing process automation and claim error elimination will improve the patient satisfaction rates for the existing patients. With the help of the insurance eligibility verification feature in billing software, the practitioner will have a clear idea of the covered services in the patients’ insurance plans at the scheduling stage.
This will be an essential step to avoid to and fros while the billing process starts. The EHR integrated billing system will help clinics inform the patients about the incurring expenses in insurance coverage which will further increase their satisfaction levels.
Parting Words
More time is spent on inefficient medical billing processes and systems; less time is left to devote themselves to patients. This is why an EHR integration becomes an essential component for deciding which practice management solution to choose. These solutions will allow the providers with unparalleled partner solutions, which will further modernize the existing practice and offer your patients world-class healthcare service with no hiccups in other benefits.
EMR Vs EHR – What Are the Essential Differences between EMR and EHR
To the layman there is a certain amount of equivalence when one talks about medicine and health. Apparently the two go together and are interconnected which is true to a certain degree but there is a fine distinction when it comes to records, especially those maintained in electronic form, usually in the form of software based EHR systems. This is the current trend and data is stored as Electronic Medical Record (EMR) or Electronic Health Record (EHR), the terms sometimes overlapping and used interchangeably. It must be noted that over 93% of hospitals in the USA use EHRs. A closer look shows that these two are disparate as we will differentiate in the ensuing paragraphs. People do tend to conflate EHR and EMR.
Some common functions of EMR:
Keep individual track of patients
Identify which patients are due for a consultation/checkup/screening and send out notifications
Keep track of patient’s specific health condition and progress as well as response to treatment
Diagnostic record
Financial aspects
What is an Electronic Medical Record (EMR)?
One way to look at an electronic medical record is to consider it as a subset of the electronic health record. The EMR is usually maintained in electronic medical record systems software supplied by a known vendor. The EMR contains data about a specific patient as regards health, demographics, diagnostics, treatments and finance, sometimes in relation to a particular health condition or illness. It is almost always created by clinical or non-clinical staff within a medical practice and it is not transferable electronically due to legal constraints. If at all a patent switches to another medical practitioner who requires access to the electronic medical records then the previous clinician would probably print and send a paper record.
What is an Electronic Health Record (EHR)?
The chief and identifying characteristic of the electronic health recordis that it is created by an enterprise health system and it is shared between healthcare organizations. It is also more wide-ranging in scope, covering not just specific ailment, diagnostics and treatment but also including an overall picture of the person’s general health conditions and physical characteristics. It also includes data about the patients’ treatments at various other healthcare facilities and clinics, covering their history. It paints a larger picture of the patients’ medical journey. Larger healthcare services providers make use of more sophisticated and secure EHR system to manage patients’ electronic health records. Access to the EHR of patients help larger healthcare services to know about their past and arrive at a faster treatment solution instead of having to start diagnostics from scratch. It also saves money and time for both patients and services.
Provided large healthcare services provider obtain their electronic health record system set up by specialist IT vendors there are quite a few benefits:
Ability to deliver specialized, higher level specialized care to referred patients
Save lives by acting fast based on availability of complete medical records
Let patients view their own records and thus encourage and motivate them to take better care
Avoid duplication and redundancy by way of lab tests and diagnostics and save time, effort and money
Provide better follow up care and holistic improvements to patients
Key differences between EMR and EHR:
The above explanations of EMR and EHR show why it is easy to conflate the two together. However, the following fine distinctions should make the differences pointedly clear.
Accessibility
As stated above the EMR is created by a particular doctor or medical facility and such records are treated as confidential. The patient or another healthcare service provider does not have direct access to the EMR.
Electronic health records, maintained in electronic health records software by larger institutions are accessible to patients who can download softcopies. EHR systems are designed to be interoperable between institutions and data is standardized using standards such as Health Level 7 (HL7) that creates standardized formats.
Interoperability
EMR systems used by small medical practitioners may be custom built by vendors and store data in their specifically created formats that may not be directly accessible by EHRs. It is a closed system. Electronic Health Records software is designed to be interoperable between different institutions across the country or the world with standardized formats and data systems as regards documentation, medicine management, diagnostics, clinical decisions, reporting, financials and analytics.
It must also be kept in mind that insurance also comes into play and interoperability provides convenience in this regard.
Higher security in EHRs
EHRs by their very nature are used in large public health services and the fact that data is shareable and systems are interoperable imposes a higher level of security and safety standards to prevent such data falling into the wrong hands or being hacked. As such, larger healthcare services must pay special attention and care to choosing electronic health records software and also on the vendor’s capability to provide ironclad security for storage and also for transmission across the internet.
Which one to opt for? EHR or EMR?
The foregoing paragraphs clearly delineate the vital distinctions between EHR and EMR. The question is which one should you choose as a medical service provider?
Individual practitioners and small clinics will find it easier, convenient and affordable to go in for compact and easy to use electronic medical records software that can be installed and managed in-house. Such practitioners can access patient’s EMR on their office systems as well as through their mobiles. However, it must be kept in mind that there will be quite a few patients whose condition, treatment required and the lack of facilities in the individual doctor’s clinic will make it necessary for such patients to be referred to larger hospitals with better facilities. As such, the right recommendation is that individual practitioners will find it a wise choice to go with electronic health record software right from the start due to interoperability, higher security and access. If this is the choice, and it is the right one at that, what remains to be done is to choose the right vendor and get a cloud based EHR software solution that includes messaging, financials and billing in one package.
At face value, it would seem the documenting and maintaining patient medical records electronically should be more efficient and easier for physicians and providers. However, many medical practices are finding Electronic Health Record (EHR) solutions can be more of a burden than an asset. Physicians complain that they keep putting data into the EHR, but have trouble accessing it in a simple, insightful way. The inability to extract and exchange information among many of today’s often-outdated EMR/EHR systems and providers negatively disrupts workflow, adversely affects the quality of patient care, and creates destructive confusion and ambiguity. The wrong EHR solutions greatly contribute to provider burnout and dissatisfaction.
Uncomplicate the User Interface of EHRs
Busy and complicated user interfaces on some EHRs can make patient record documentation and medical charting a cumbersome task. It can be hard to find the right patient, match diagnostic reports, and make informed decisions for your patients. These complicated, confusing EHRs can cause more harm than good, increasing patient safety issues. Medical providers are demanding that EHRs should have an uncomplicated, yet intelligent user interface. They want physician designed and specialty focused interfaces and dashboards that improve overall user experience. They want solutions that are smart, savvy and simply designed.
Reduce Data Related Gaps in Care
In addition to simplifying the UI, physicians are frustrated by incomplete patient medical records and disconnected care teams. Without integration and improved interoperability, there may be gaps in patient care, duplicate orders, and critical contraindications. They need an innovative EHR platform that connects the care team, practice management and revenue cycle management across their healthcare enterprise. They need systems that talk to each other. Integrated and interoperable medical practice technology solutions and data sources offer greater productivity and efficiency levels, and most importantly better decision-making that lead to improved patient outcomes.
Increase Time for Patient Care and Decrease Documentation Time
Physicians and practitioners want to spend their time making the best clinical decisions for their patients and producing better outcomes and experience, managing a tedious documentation process. Medical practices need the right technology that better enables them to deliver the best healthcare to their patient population. They need a reinvented EHR that offers analytics and clinical decision support that is empowered with artificial intelligence.
Offer Specialty-specific Design and Functionality
Most EHRs are designed with a one size fits all methodology. There is limited flexibility and functionality for specialty-specific workflows and care plans. Pediatric, cardiology, or oncology practices need very different capabilities than the standard EHR designed mostly for primary care physician practices. Plus, larger enterprise practices may have varying needs that smaller medical practices. Physicians and practitioners need an EHR designed from their specialty and practice perspective. Templates and modules need to match the way they manage patient care within their specialty. Physician-constructed multi-specialty EHRs can accommodate varying medical specialties with customized functionality and an integrated platform to provide robust, reliable workflows.
OmniMD has reinvented the Electronic Health Record, taking the guess work out of charting, practice management and medical billing. No matter your specialty, OmniMD has specialty-specific workflows and order sets that think the way you think. If your EHR makes practicing medicine more complicated, you should consider a free consultation with OmniMD. Our solution analysts can help optimize your existing technology investment to uncomplicated patient charting, decision-making and overall management of your medical practice.
