Better Information Leads to Better HealthCare
Providers report improved abilities to make better healthcare decisions with comprehensive data.
EHRs aid with diagnosing
Providers have reliable access to complete health data, helping diagnose patients’ problems faster, resulting in better healthcare.
EHRs reduce errors, improve safety, support better healthcare outcomes
EHRs not only hold or transmit data; but they compute it.
EHRs manipulate data in ways that make better healthcare differences for patients.
Examples:
EHRs keep record of medications or allergies, and automatically check when new medication is ordered, alerting to potential conflicts.
Data collected by the primary provider and recorded in an EHR tells a clinician in the emergency department about the patient’s life-threatening allergy, and they adjust care, even if the patient is incapacitated.
EHRs expose potential safety problems if they occur, helping providers avoid more serious consequences, and leading to better healthcare outcomes.
Providers quickly and systematically locate and correct operational problems. With a paper charting system, identifying such problems is much more difficult, and correcting them might take years.
EHRs give providers accurate, complete data about a patient’s health
This enables providers to give the best healthcare, by providing the data they need to evaluate a patient’s current condition in the context of the their history.
During emergencies, EHRs provide instant access to data about a patient’s medical history, allergies, and medications. This can enable providers to make decisions sooner, instead of waiting for data from test results.
The ability to better coordinate the care they give, is especially important if a patient has a serious or chronic medical condition, such as diabetes.
A way to share data with patients and their family caregivers. This means patients and their families can more fully take part in decisions about their health care.
The main goal of health IT is to improve the quality and safety of patient care. The promise of fully realized EHRs is having a single record that includes all of a patient’s health information: a record that is up to date, complete, and accurate. This puts providers in a better position to work with their patients to make good decisions.
EHRs flag dangerous drug interactions (to help prescribing doctors explore alternatives before a problem occurs), verify medications and dosages (to ensure that pharmacists dispense the right drug), and reduce the need for potentially risky tests and procedures.
More on Improved Health Care
Patients, their families and providers all benefit when all team members can communicate with each other effectively and efficiently.
The Nation’s health and economy benefit
EHR adoption requires investment of time and money, but financial incentives helped providers make the transition.
Over $7 billion has been issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
An estimated $22.5 billion will be paid from 2011 – 2022 to eligible providers who adopt EHR technology
More EHR Case Studies
Researchers at the Center for IT Leadership (2010) studied the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and estimated that savings from preventing adverse drug events alone totaled $4.64 billion.
In Indianapolis, Finnell and Overhage (2010) found a majority of emergency medical professionals said they benefited from access to pre-existing health fata, through electronic exchange. Medics said the data was useful for patients with frequent emergencies and those who were unconscious, uncooperative, or otherwise unable to provide information.
Shapiro et. al. (2011) examined health information exchange projects in 48 States. Although the projects faced some financial and technical hurdles, they showed potential for improving public health reporting and investigation, emergency response, and communication between public health officials and clinicians.
Persell et. al (2011) found that EHRs use data on patients’ medical histories to improve quality significantly by reminding providers of the best methods of care for specific patients.
If you find this blog helpful, please share it with colleagues, or direct them to our website.