Medical information shared at the right time holds more value for the life of a patient. Now a days, doctors are inclining to electronic medical records (EMR) which presents the patient details on a single click. The doctors and patient are greatly benefited by the EMR which stores the entire patient history and up-to-date information regarding the health issues of the patient. The EMR is also associated with other modules such as billing, insurance, and reimbursement of healthcare expenses etc. Patients can be educated through the application regarding the symptoms and cure of various diseases.
All the healthcare are linked with a common identity of the patient through medical records which holds universal information of patient which can be useful for patient treatment quickly without any delay in service. The quality of the service can be improved with EMR. The EMR application can also be associated with other sub-disciplines of healthcare such as nursing informatics, medical informatics, pharmacy informatics, bioinformatics, pharmaceutical informatics, clinical informatics, public health informatics, consumer informatics, health IT, and health information management.
It was noted during a study that nearly 50% of healthcare dollars were wasted on inefficient process. It is believed by more than 53% of the health management professionals that EMR will lower operational costs. The medical information about the patient can be reviewed and can be fully audited within 1.4 hours compared to 3.9 hours through paper systems. Also, it may lower the malpractices significantly.
EMR eliminates the need for repeated and duplicate test and procedures. Hence the medical care process can be streamlined. Around 75% of clinicians using electronic health records receive lab results faster. 82% report that electronic prescribing saves time and reduces errors. Nearly 75% of the providers report that EMR allows them to deliver better care. It increases the coordination between the patient and service providers.
One of the most advantageous aspect of electronic medical record is that it makes it easier for medical professionals to access the information remotely from any location. It supports safer and more reliable prescribing. The EMR also support enhanced decision making including warning of drug interaction. All the related medical records can be documented easily with accurate medical history.
One of the primary objective of healthcare strategies is to educate the patient. 61% of health management professionals believe in patient education. 34% believe that EMR supports to handle the information properly with less paper log. With EMR implementation, patients can have direct access to their health records. It keeps the patient informed and involved with healthcare. An informatics system can be introduced to help the patient manage their own care.
The next revolutionary IT advancement that reflects the effectiveness of healthcare is patient appointment scheduler (PAS). Online scheduling software simplifies and automates all the process for all-sized organization which is also easily accessible. The best utilization of the resource is possible via patient appointment scheduler while it is cost effective too.
The manual management of appointments increases the operational cost with investment on more man power and overtime pay. There may be constant phone calls, lost productivity, increased expenses, missed revenue, customer inconvenience, limited office hours, frustrated employees, and inefficient operations.
With PAS, 24 hours appointment scheduling is possible. The patients can book an appointment from anywhere at anytime by freezing the appointment slots with best resource utilization. The PAS is very flexible to use with 24/7 access with high security measures. Apart from online scheduling, the patient appointment scheduler can be useful for reporting. Different types of reports can be produced easily such as details of appointment, customer information, statistical reports etc.
The patients can be reminded about their appointment automatically by the PAS system. They can also cancel or re-schedule the appointment at any time. The no-shows can be greatly reduced using patient appointment scheduler. It can also replace the need for any call centers to book appointments.
The PAS and EMR keeps the patient connected with the healthcare and receive the service without any barrier on time, place, and person. The contact information stored in the system can act like a vital resource for the healthcare to contact the customers easily and inform them about arrival of expert technicians or doctors or send push notification regrading the latest news and updates. A good loyal customer base can be build using PAS and EMR.