Electronic health records (EHR) are a core component of your practice operations, but they can also be complex and time-consuming to use. Fortunately, there are several ways to optimize your EHR system for simplified and streamlined processes. Here are five ways a full EHR optimization can make a significant difference in your medical practice:
1.) Access and Sharing of Patient Information
One of the main purposes of the EHR is to make patient information easier to access and share. The typical EHR implementation often misses the mark on full functionality. Optimizing your electronic health records system can make it work as intended by helping it properly connect to other technology tools that transmit and receive patient information.
2.) Automated Workflows That Improve Care Coordination
Ideally, the EHR should support care coordination for the timely sharing of information. Automated processes mean that a provider no longer needs to wait for an information request to be fulfilled when the patient’s records are readily available. When providers can automatically share information with one another, this makes patient visits more productive.
3.) Reduction in Medical Errors for Better Patient Outcomes
As mentioned in the previous section, having all the patient data available helps providers make the best decisions for a patient’s care. Having a complete picture of a patient’s progress can avoid redundant tests, misdiagnoses, or other setbacks to a positive patient outcome.
Simplifying your EHR’s workflow can also help with drug management by providing alerts such as interactions and allergies. It can even help with accurate dosage by automatically calculating medications accurately.
4.) Reduce Burnout with an Improved User Experience
Several sources confirm that EHRs are a top contributor to burnout in healthcare. This means that you cannot expect to avert burnout without considering the impact of your EHR as a factor. A better EHR workflow provides the personalization and training needed to ensure that the system interface is set up appropriately for each role of the care team.
By reducing frustrations associated with the EHR clinicians and staff save time on tasks. Time savings can then be reallocated to more face-to-face time with patients. Efficiency resulting from EHR simplification also means that team members can spend less time after hours catching up on tasks.
5.) Patient Engagement Improvements Reduces Staff Workload
Patient engagement garnered from patient usage portal is another way EHRs can help operations. When the patient portal is set up for a user experience that encourages ongoing use, patients can become more inclined to use it. Patient “self-service” by way of the patient portal, practice staff spends less time fulfilling requests on the phone such as lab results, scheduling appointments, and taking down patient messages for the physician.
Summary: How Simplifying Your EHR System Benefits Practice Operations
In theory, electronic health records should leverage technology to streamline healthcare operations, but in practice, it has taken some time to see it happen as intended. Rather than make do with inefficient workarounds, medical practices turn to optimization to simplify the EHR.
Medical practice operations benefit from a complete EHR update in myriad ways:
- More reliable access to patient data
- Workflow improvements
- Error reduction
- Burnout mitigation
- Patient engagement advancements
Get the Benefits of Simplified Medical Practice Operations
Inefficient electronic health records processes often block medical practices from having smooth and productive operations. Time-consuming workarounds and constant workflow interruptions are a persistent diversion from improving performance in the ways that matter most.
More often than not, base model EHRs are not set up for efficient use “out of the box.” Workflow optimization is an intricate process that requires careful planning and execution. Our experienced EHR consultants do a complete assessment to uncover all improvement opportunities and will configure your EHR system to the specifications unique to your medical practice. For more information on how simplifying your EHR system can transform your practice operations for the better, contact us today