An EHR system, following certain pillars and tailored to the exact needs of the practitioner, is guaranteed to improve the overall performance of the practice.
Electronic Health Record (EHR) is a practice used widely by medical professionals based in the US to electronically record patient-related information during the course of their practice. The recorded information may contain details regarding the patient’s clinical history, patient’s ongoing medical treatments, patient’s family health record and payments made against the patient. EHR saves medical practitioners from maintaining a manual record of each patient. It also saves the doctor from the hassle of going through bundles of papers to find information regarding each patient, because all of that is available digitally and can be accessed by a mere few clicks. EHR has completely revolutionized healthcare and has opened up new avenues of research and development in the field of patient management.
Chances are there that there might be challenges associated with deciding on and implementing the right EHR software. Doctors have reported having faced up to 20% drop in productivity due to problems in the EHR that they adopted and would prefer to go back to paper and pencil.
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However, if you are successful in deploying the EHR which has been tailored to your specific needs, it will do your practice a world of good by streamlining processes, boosting performance and improve patient management and engagement. In order to judge the mettle of a certain EHR software, it should be evaluated on the basis of these six pillars: Usability, Functionality, Efficiency, Reliability, Maintainability and Portability.
- Usability
Usability is the foundation of any digital or computer-related product and software. Usability is the most debated topic because if it’s not easy to use, it’s just not worth it.
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EHR Usability refers to making an EHR software easy-to-use for the doctors. The general look and feel of the EHR should be easy and straightforward for the medical practitioner so that they can completely rely on it. It should be simple, intuitive, immersive and enjoyable. The EHR system should also be easy to learn for the practitioners and office staff who are new to using EHR. From KPI dashboards to enterprise scheduling, intelligent billing and data mining reports, all aspects of an EHR system should be user-friendly and this is not a part of the wish list but the most basic thing that software designers and developers keep in mind. The UI (User Interface) should be clean, clear and clutter-free. It should also have easy use of language and should be such that it reduces cognitive load.
- Functionality
The usefulness of any commodity is highly dependent upon the set of features that it offers. Any commodity that offers more functionality is considered more useful by the end-user.
Functionality refers to the set of in-built features that are incorporated into an EHR software – features such as Electronic Prescription, Electronic Labs and Workflow Automation. The providers should have complete access to his appointments, clinical reviews, patient notes, medical histories and document manager – all bundled in one platform. An EHR system should also be designed for interoperability and should allow the doctor to connect with health information exchanges, pharmacies, payers, radiology/imaging services, hospital networks, referring providers, cancer registries, patients, syndromic surveillance agencies, immunization registries and specialty registries. It should also be able to communicate with the requisite hardware devices such as printers and scanners.
- Efficiency
The efficiency of an EHR software refers to how smoothly does it work and it does all the tasks that the EHR service provider claims that it will do. An EHR system is meant to be a hassle-free solution to the financial and data-keeping needs of the doctor. It should help the doctor in improving productivity, accelerating revenue cycle, reducing risks and costs, ensuring necessary US compliances and engaging patients to ensure that quality care is provided to them. The EHR system should be responsive and glitch-free so that it performs the functions that the doctors expect it to do.
- Reliability:
The world is moving towards long-lasting and hassle-free solutions. Such is the importance of reliability these days that many people consider buying things with bigger warranty periods and better aftersales support.
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The reliability of an EHR software refers to its capability to sustain under pre-defined conditions. EHR system is meant to be fault-free because it is intended to reduce human errors. EHR systems should also be safe from any unethical and unforeseen access. It should have standard protocols of encryption embedded into its system to ensure safe and secure flow of data between the end user’s system and the EHR provider’s server. As there is always room for error, the EHR provider should also provide 24/7 active customer support to resolve issues at the earliest.
- Maintainability:
Despite all technological advancements and industrial innovations, there is always room for errors and improvements. The company that understands this and works hard to offer relentless support to its existing clients is the one that usually leads the market. Timely maintenance is the need of every end-user commodity.
Maintainability of an EHR software refers to the ability of the EHR software to get fixed and receive timely bug updates. This is one of the most important aspects of EHR software because there is always a chance that it may crash or face errors. All renowned software and operating systems get timely updates from their parent companies. Therefore, a good EHR software should also receive its due share of updates and bug fixes. Maintainability of an EHR is highly dependent upon its architecture and coding – if that is done correctly, then there is every chance that the EHR can be easily fixed if it ever encounters any unforeseen errors. It is also the responsibility of the EHR software provider to test its software repeatedly to ensure that their final product is as glitch-free as possible.
- Portability:
As the world demands smarter solutions to their needs, portability happens to be one of the most important ones. Everyone wants their services on-the-go. And the best part – vendors have actually realized this and are focusing on providing portable services to their clients.
Portability of an EHR software refers to how many means by which can it be accessed. Most EHR software offer PC and Mobile/Tablet support. Some software companies are also considering the idea of bringing the practice of wearable EHR for doctors, so that the doctors may get vital information regarding their practice on their smartwatches. Other than this, EHR providers also provide cloud access to their platform. They do not ask you to install hefty servers to install their servers – they simply offer you to do everything online.
CONCLUSION
In a nutshell, the ultimate aim of integrating an EHR software is to improve the healthcare experience of all the stakeholders of this particular industry – doctors, patients and everyone associated with it. Quality patient care reaps financial benefits to the doctor and it is the job of the EHR software to help doctors in doing so. If an EHR system follows the 6 main pillars, it will not only improve the productivity of the doctors but will also improve their revenues by up to 5%-10%.
