EMR stands for Electronic Medical Records, which are the digital equivalent of paper records, or printed matter or documents at a medical organization. EMRs are a collection of records, information like the medical history of patients, ongoing treatment, and upcoming appointments, etc. in an organized manner. These records have the potential to provide substantial benefits to physicians, clinic practices, and health care organizations. Because of technological advancement in the Medical Industry, the scope of EMR & EHR, medical billing software, Remote Patient Monitoring systems, etc. is increasing day by day. Let’s understand how is Electronic Medical Record Beneficial for Healthcare Industry?
Advantages of EMR Implementation
Electronic medical records have made it easy to create, gather, manage, and analyze the data and information in an effective way, to make the processing easy and user-friendly. This is how it can save efforts and time and can be stored safely for a really long time. The key benefit of EMR is that the data can be accessed by any healthcare provider, meaning that instead of having different charts at different healthcare facilities, a patient will have one electronic chart that can be accessed from any healthcare facility using EMR software.- Financial Benefits: If you are thinking to implement EMRs in your facility, you should consider the financial benefits. According to a case study published in The American Journal of Medicine, EMR users saved on office expenditures, improved the recording and reporting of billing services, improved efficiency in radiologic diagnostics, and decreased billing errors. Also, reduced operational costs such as transcription services and overtime labor expenses and the amount are considerable.
- Better Patient Care and Treatment: With an EMR system, you can understand and prescribe medication for patients online more safely as you will already know if the patient was prescribed any medication from another doctor. You can quickly know each patient’s health problems and any allergies they may have. With such detailed information, you can treat and care better and efficient, and it gives satisfaction to your customers.
Disadvantages of EMR Implementation
Along with the above-cited advantages, EMR possesses some disadvantages as well. These drawbacks are sometimes beyond the control of EMR vendors. Some of them are listed below-- Financial Loss: If the planning and budgeting are not done properly before opting EMR system in your organization, you may face some financial losses. EMR is the latest digital technology that’s why the installation cost is high, but improper planning results in an increased operational cost. Survey data from the MPI Group and Medical Economics indicate 65% of respondents reported their EHR systems resulted in financial losses for the practice. A similar study published in Health Informatics of 39 hospitals found “that increased expenses and slower patient volumes contributed to a median 10.1 percent decline in absolute operating cash flow and 6.1 percent reduction in days cash on hand in the install year.” It is important to note that the hospitals studied were able to rebound from this downturn. Hence it makes proper budgeting and the modeling of costs and benefits very important.
- Temporary losses in productivity: EHR adoption causes disruption of work-flows for medical staff and providers, which results in temporary losses in productivity. EHR adoption and implementation include purchasing and installing hardware and software, converting paper charts to electronic ones, and training end-users. It may take some time to readjust and may cause loss of productivity temporarily.
