It’s time for healthcare facilities to embrace electronic health systems (EHR)

04/04/2024

Information technology has revolutionized communication across various sectors, including banking, transportation, delivery services, and more, where its usage is increasingly prevalent.

In recent years, it’s become evident that companies leveraging information technology gain a competitive edge over their counterparts, with customers showing a preference for technologically advanced services.

As the younger generation’s influence in the economy grows, there will likely be a surge in demand for swift, technology-driven services in the future.

Unsurprisingly, healthcare hasn’t been left untouched by the advancements in information technology. Healthcare IT facilitates seamless interactions between patients and medical professionals, pharmacies, clinics, and hospitals.

Electronic Health Records (EHRs), also known as Electronic Medical Records (EMRs), are used by clinics to manage processes digitally. While these terms originally held distinct meanings, they are now used interchangeably in the West.

EHR digitizes the entire patient treatment process, encompassing both clinical and administrative aspects. It plays a pivotal role in the efficient operation of hospitals and clinics worldwide. Without it, managing clinical processes becomes exceptionally challenging.

While EHRs are a relatively new concept in Georgia, in this post, we aim to elucidate why the adoption of such systems is beneficial for both clinics and patients in a simple and understandable manner.

A typical Electronic Health Record (EHR) system encompasses two main functional modules: clinical and administrative.

Clinical Module: This module pertains to aspects directly involved in patient care. Some of its components include:

Documentation: Here, doctors can make notes regarding patient visits, symptoms, diagnoses, and treatment plans.
Referrals and Prescriptions: Doctors can electronically generate referrals to specialists and prescribe medications.
Results Reporting: This feature allows doctors to access and review the results of laboratory tests and other diagnostic procedures.

In essence, the clinical module streamlines the daily workflow of healthcare professionals, providing them with comprehensive patient health information essential for effective treatment.

Administrative Module: Similar to any other business, healthcare facilities require tools to manage records effectively. This includes:

Billing: Tracking financial transactions and generating invoices.
Appointment Scheduling: Managing patient appointments efficiently.
Staff Management: Organizing staff schedules, tasks, and performance evaluation.

These modules represent essential functional components of the EHR system. Additionally, we can classify EHR functionality based on where it’s utilized:

While outpatient clinics and hospitals have distinct operational needs, they share certain functions such as billing and documentation.

EHR offers benefits to both healthcare professionals (doctors, nurses, administrators) and patients. Let’s explore the advantages for each group separately.

The implementation of EHR brings numerous benefits for medical staff:

Elimination of Handwriting Issues: With EHR, handwritten notes are no longer necessary, eliminating inaccuracies in doctors’ and nurses’ work processes, saving time, and ensuring legible documentation.
Enhanced Efficiency in Treatment: Questionnaires are no longer lost, saving time spent searching for them. There’s no need to start anew with each questionnaire, leading to a more efficient treatment process.
Unified Information Sharing: EHR ensures consistent information across the medical institution’s network. For example, if a patient undergoes tests at one clinic within the network and consults a doctor at another clinic, staff members at both locations have access to relevant information.
Avoidance of Redundant Treatment: Doctors can avoid unnecessary treatments due to the comprehensive information available in EHR. Without EHR, doctors may unknowingly repeat ineffective treatments because they lack information on previous treatments and outcomes.
Monitoring Treatment Dynamics: EHR enables doctors to monitor the progression of a patient’s treatment. For instance, when referring a patient for diagnostic procedures, such as laboratory tests or imaging studies, doctors can verify whether the patient followed through with them.
Elimination of Treatment Gaps: EHR prevents “black holes” in the treatment process, providing insights into whether prescribed medications were administered, materials were sent for analysis, and more. This information is crucial for effective treatment.
Legal Protection: In legal disputes, EHR serves as a valuable tool for medical staff. Each service is documented, providing evidence to support medical professionals in case of disputes, thus minimizing vulnerability in legal cases.

The benefits of EHR for administrative staff are manifold:

Resolving Medication Accounting Issues: EHR streamlines medication tracking and inventory management, ensuring accurate records of medication usage and availability.
Organized Registration: EHR facilitates orderly registration processes, making it easier to manage patient records, appointments, and administrative tasks.
Efficient Financial Management: EHR aids in the meticulous tracking and management of income and expenses, ensuring accurate financial records and facilitating financial decision-making.
Accurate Payroll Processing: EHR systems enable correct calculation and registration of staff salaries, minimizing errors and ensuring timely and accurate payments.
Decreased Financial Losses: With improved accuracy in financial management and payroll processing, EHR helps reduce financial losses resulting from errors or inefficiencies.
Enhanced Patient Services: The speed and efficiency of administrative processes supported by EHR enable administrative staff to provide more prompt and responsive services to patients.
Simplified Compliance with Regulations: EHR systems often include features that facilitate adherence to state regulations and compliance requirements, reducing administrative burden and ensuring regulatory compliance.
Reduced Office Expenses: By streamlining administrative processes and reducing paperwork, EHR contributes to lower office expenses associated with printing, storage, and other administrative tasks.

Here’s how EHRs benefit patients:

Ease of appointment with a doctor.
Electronic records ensure uniformity, allowing doctors to access comprehensive patient information, eliminating errors such as duplicating laboratory tests.
Patient records are preserved, fostering trust in the medical institution.
Reduced time spent on tasks like retrieving test results and explaining medical history, complaints, and previous services received.
Enhanced patient safety through error minimization, with EHRs providing valuable evidence in legal disputes.

In Georgia, the medical industry has experienced significant development in recent years, with technology gradually catching up. Consequently, the adoption of healthcare IT is becoming increasingly vital in our country.

Besides governmental initiatives promoting the implementation of electronic systems, medical institutions in Georgia face numerous challenges in their daily operations. Here are some of the problems encountered by clinics and hospitals:

Difficulty in accounting for receivables and receiving payments from payers.
Challenges in accurately tracking expenses and revenues associated with patient care.
Errors in calculating and disbursing salaries to staff members.
Issues in inventory management and tracking material costs.
Disorganized and slow patient registration processes.
Clinical errors such as dosing mistakes, procedural errors, and errors in treatment and service provision.
Time-consuming process of gathering medical histories, which detracts from time available for patient care.
Lack of dynamic monitoring of patient treatment, both in outpatient clinics and hospitals.
High expenses related to producing printed documents.
Problems arising from paper-based medical documentation, including damage to documents, illegible handwriting, and bacterial accumulation on paper records.

It’s crucial to highlight that implementing EHR can significantly simplify the resolution of these and similar issues. This not only enhances the efficiency and benefits of clinics but also increases their attractiveness to potential clients. While it might seem unusual to refer to patients as clients, it’s important to recognize that patients ultimately decide which medical institution to entrust with their health. A well-organized clinic utilizing modern technologies naturally gains a competitive edge in the market.

Moreover, there are several additional benefits that EHR implementation can offer to clinics and hospitals:

Time Savings: Providers report saving doctors approximately 10-20 hours per week, allowing them to dedicate more time to patient care.
Environmental Impact: Electronic documentation reduces paper usage, contributing to environmental conservation efforts.
Enhanced Security: Electronic documents are safeguarded against theft, loss due to human error, and damage from natural disasters.
Improved Accessibility: Providers can easily locate specific documents without the need to search through physical files, streamlining access to crucial information.