Informed Care Decisions Using HIE & EMRs
Electronic Health Records (“EHR”) software and other Health Information Exchange (“HIE”) tools are playing an ever-expanding role in the lives of healthcare professionals. EHRs are typically used within a clinic to collect data, and HIEs pass information to depositories to compile vast amounts of patient data by entire states, regions or countries. These tools are revolutionizing the way patient treatment data is stored, accessed, analyzed, and dispersed. Doctors and other caregivers will now have the capacity to analyze a patient’s full medical history at the site of care eliminating any guess work or assumptions, their knowledge will now be their power in treating patients.
The drawbacks of paper-based documentation have long been well documented. Such systems slow the dissemination of vital information, add opportunities for error, and increase cost and inefficiency of patient care. An EHR on the other hand creates an active record of patient treatments over time accumulating patient prescriptions and co-morbidities, treatment data and recommendations, medications, vital signs, etc.
Advanced EHR and HIE solutions include tools that gather select data points into comprehensive reports to trend the effectiveness of treatment decisions and care plans over time. Reports such as Gaia Software’s new Lab Analysis Report, allow for full customization and the ability to save report templates that include specific values required for monitoring. The ability to save these templates essentially allows users to create a database of reporting tools that can be accessed for pertinent patient data at any point in time. Caregivers can specifically target patients who meet specific outlier criteria and prioritize attention on improving their outcomes.
This new wealth of data allows trends to be more easily identified and care plans to be compared and modified for effectiveness. Through the use of electronic information systems caregivers can easily share treatment information and care plans across the care continuum to form a synergy of care that includes all necessary data, not just what is available at one facility or office.
Examining integrated treatment data can provide a comprehensive overview of patient encounters. This abundant data source enables stratification of the patient population, helping providers properly identify the highest risk or highest cost patients and those in need of dedicated care management. EHRs are increasingly including functionality that uses these data points to enhance care, such as computerized order entry and clinical decision support.
Using innovative EHR and HIE solutions, organizations can access and disseminate more effective care plans, coordinate care efforts within affiliated organizations to improve patient outcomes, satisfaction and commitment, and improve operational efficiencies that result in significant and sustainable cost savings.
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