Improving Medical Practices through EMR/EHR Systems

Added: (Thu Jan 26 2012)

Pressbox (Press Release) - The improvement of medical practices was not only because of the development of new cures and treatment, but also because of technologies which aims to augment and enhance medical practices and healthcare services. Popular examples are EMR and ehr software.



What is an EMR/EHR?
An EMR/EHR system is a technology developed to improve healthcare services by making it easier for many medical experts store, retrieve, and modify medical records. It aims to replace the use of paper-based medical and health records.



Though the terms EMR and EHR are often used interchangeably, the difference between the two is that EMR can be defined as the legal patient record created in hospitals and ambulatory environments that is the data source for the EHR.



But other than just for easily storing, retrieving, and modifying medical records, the use of EMR and EHR systems can also improve medical practices through its many capabilities, such as the fact that these systems had eliminated medical errors commonly associated with paper-based medical errors.



Advantages of EMR/EHR Systems


Eliminating Medical Errors
Handwritten paper medical records can be associated with poor legibility, which can contribute to medical errors. Electronic records help with the standardization of forms, terminology and abbreviations, and data input. Digitization of forms facilitates the collection of data for epidemiology and clinical studies.



Improved Medical Practices
In addition to the fact that EMR/EHR systems had eliminated most medical errors associated with paper-based medical records, these technological advancements had also been used to improve medical services and practices through its own decision support system.



Most EMR/EHR systems, such as an orthopedic emr, can help reduce medical errors by providing healthcare workers with decision support. Fast access to medical literature and current best practices in medicine that these systems provided medical experts had enabled the proliferation of ongoing improvements in healthcare efficacy.



Mobility of Medical Records
Another important factor why EMR/EHR systems became successful was because of the mobility of medical records.



EHR systems have the advantages of being able to connect to many electronic medical record systems. In the current global medical environment, patients are shopping for their procedures. Many international patients travel to US cities with academic research centers for specialty treatment or to participate in Clinical Trials. Coordinating these appointments via paper records is a time-consuming procedure.