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One of the key's to a practice's success is implementing an electronic health record with the features that bring more efficiency. Likewise, it's just as important to understand the EHR features that matter most to most practices.
Scroll down for the top six features important to most doctors and medical practices when it comes to choosing the most efficient EHR.
Speed is a must-have EHR feature. In addition to being able to quickly access patient records, it’s also important that your EHR make it easy to schedule patients, bill for appointments, collect patient and insurance payments, and ensure that the entire visit from start to finish—and even afterwards—goes as efficiently and smoothly as possible.
Your patient journey that should be held together by a fast and workable system that benefits you, your patients, and your entire medical staff.
Being able to dictate your notes during a patient encounter makes a visit go much more smoothly for you and the patient. You can enter notes into your EHR more quickly and efficiently than if writing by hand or entering them via a keyboard. A strong dictation system can also help when it comes to spelling words that your smartphone may not correct on the first, second, or even third try.
Further benefits of a good dictation system include the ability to chart into specific parts of the care plan. Do you need to chart a new medicine you are prescribing your patient?
Use dictation software to ensure that the medication is listed in the right part of the patient’s care plan. As we'll explore below, the increase in adaptive learning in the most efficient EHR software complements a strong dictation system. Machine learning and voice recognition together accelerates documentation and are must-have features to add on to your electronic health records software.
Even more exciting than voice recognition is a complementary product that comes from advances in adaptive learning systems. A plan-based adaptive learning program can be specific to each patient in that it captures and anticipates likely next steps.
Adaptive learning means a system that remembers what you use most often. For example, if you diagnose a condition multiple times and prescribe a certain medication, the system will learn this and suggest it as your input for any further patients who require a similar diagnosis.
Interoperability is a must-have in a list of top EHR features. Interoperability allows for varying computer and software systems the ability to exchange and share data. This data can come from a variety of places including labs, clinics, hospitals, pharmacies, and other medical practices.
A great example of interoperability is if you are a family doctor and you send a patient to the cardiologist. You can transmit the records to the cardiologist, regardless of the systems being used there. They can send results from the cardiology exam back to you in the same way.
Other examples include integration with HIEs, direct messaging with your patients, or working with network partners that provide services that are made possible by strong integrations with interoperability.
In today's world, the most efficient EHR must work on more platforms than ever before. Beyond a desktop or laptop computer, your electronic health record software should work via a mobile device (i.e. tablet, iPad, Android, iPhone) and offer a mobile app that can be downloaded to better replicate your software on a mobile device. This not only helps with having more ways to stay connected, but the mobility of a phone or tablet versus a computer allows even more efficiency in moving from room to room to take care of your patients in different settings.
Mobility can also allow for replication. This means that you can practice outside of the office with full access to your EHR functions. This comes without the need for an internet connection. When you reconnect to the internet, replication ensures that all your data is synced and updated.
The information accessible and modifiable within an EHR is only as good as the customization options that come with it. Having the capability to customize templates is a feature that creates the best in efficiencies. Templates give you the ability to record notes with even better efficiency. You can easily define templates for a wide variety of specialties with the right electronic health records solution. The time savings gained by using templates can be quite dramatic, so it is a feature you will want to have with your EHR selection.
Having comprehensive clinical content provided right out of the box, with support for over 70 specialties, helps increase the efficiencies of your EHR. Not only is the availability of content important, but also the fact that it can be quickly and easily modified by members of the care team or other individuals with a need to match your unique workflows or documentation.
While mentioned numerous times, efficiency is the key term to any EHR feature. For the feature to be efficient, it must work well and be a valuable part to the workday for you and your staff.
There are many other features that are important when it comes to choosing the the most efficient EHR. Is there one that you think should be in the top six? Should the list be even larger? Let us know what you think is important on our social media or contact us directly.
