Reasons To Implement Electronic Health Record Services

When the electronic records of a patient is available to more than one doctor, they will be able to take better health decisions. As a patient is transferred from the primary care doctor to a specialist and back to the primary care, too often the doctors may not get the chance to communicate or send the patient’s medical records to each touch point along the way. 

When these doctors share the medical records electronically, a new doctor only needs to ask for the name of the patient, birth date and possibly some other piece of identifying information to get access to the complete health record of the patient. The treatment and diagnosis decisions might be changed, based on the information that is found in the patient database, which is far more complete than what a patient, or any staff might have written down on sheets of paper. 

As the electronic health records make information easy to access, the need for a patient to repeat expensive and uncomfortable tests are very much minimized. This will help not only to save time, but makes it very much easier for the patient by reducing the costs. Another advantage of keeping electronic health records is that this data will not be lost very easily. Paper files can be easily lost, whereas the electronic health records will always be accessible.

EHRs allows to have better standardization throughout the healthcare system when it comes to record keeping, as it offers a uniform way of filling out information that makes it easier for the doctors and nurses to locate the information that they need for the patient. Putting the health records to an electronic format ensures accuracy when the time to bill the patient for the services comes. The importance of the electronic health records become magnified when someone is ill or injured.

When a person moves out of the country, their electronic health record will be able to move with them. In addition, if a doctor moves or retires, the patients no longer need to worry about tracking down the records as long as the records are kept electronically. 

The main disadvantage of electronic patient records is the need of an electronic health records specialist to keep tract of these records. Without the help of an electronic health records specialist, it will be difficult to keep track of these records.

Many of the hospitals now have at least one electronic health records specialist post. If you wish to know more on electronic health records and electronic health records specialist jobs, you can seek help from a professional in the field.