Article on Actual Expert System Application

                                                                  

   Topic : Electronic Medical Record      

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Educating your Patients through an EMR

Patients come to you for a variety of reasons, seeking answers to their health questions.  Many of them may have researched their illness or complaints online to better understand their situation and to discuss this information with you.  You would like to provide them with helpful information that you know is right.  Choosing an EMR that provides you with this information enables you to provide additional education materials to your patients with a mouse click.

Whether your practice already maintains pre-printed brochures for your patients on various topics or not, patients want answers.  Prescription information/education is not enough.  Reviewing your course of care with your patients is always welcome: but how well will your patients remember all of the answers?  If you have a full schedule, wouldn't you rather be able to provide your patient with full documentation regarding their care instead of hoping they remember while rushing to your next appointment?

If your patient is suffering from sinusitis, wouldn't it be helpful to your patient to provide them with information such as:

·         What is sinusitis?

·         How does sinusitis occur?

·         What are the symptoms of sinusitis?

·         How is it treated?

·         How long does it last?

·         How do I take care of myself?

·         What can I do to prevent it from returning?

To choose the EMR that is best for your practice, consider the following:

Know what you need the system to do.  Don't pay for the bells and whistles that your practice will never actually use but also look for systems that will expand to meet your needs.
Carefully review the technical support and clinical updates the vendor provides.  Your vendor should be able to provide training and staff support for your system.  If they can't, find another vendor who can.
Check that the vendor has experience working with your specialty or similar practice size as well as how existing sites feel about their experience with that vendor.
Your EMR should interface with your practice management software.  Be sure to consider what new hardware and equipment interfaces you will need to buy and negotiate the service agreements in advance of purchasing the program.  Networking, wiring and hubs will all need to be purchased if implementing a network for the first time.

Information such as this should be available with the click of the mouse on a variety of topics through your EMR.  Forcing your patients to do their own research on their health may lead them to inaccurate information or to research other providers as well!  

Does your EMR offer the ability educate your patients?  If not, it may be time to look towards a more dynamic product that will allow you to provide greater quality of care while also providing ease of documentation for patient visits.

 

REACTION

 

The thought of transferring years of paper patient records into an electronic format is overwhelming for most physicians.  Many of the daily inadequacies and headaches of the paper chart continue to be overlooked because the alternative consequences seem more steep, when in fact, they are not.  Investing in an electronic medical record (EMR) for your office is a huge undertaking but one that doesn't have to be overwhelming.  Many practices intrinsically know what they need, but aren't sure how to translate their needs and choose a practice management system that will help transform the work flow of the office.

The Importance of an EMR. Making the transition to an electronic medical record is one of the most intelligent business decisions that a practice can make. Determining whether an electronic medical record makes sense in a medical office is not strictly a numbers game - it's a matter of patient care. It is a function not only of finance, but also of the quality of services provided, such as reduction in medical errors and patient education.    

Also EMR Helps Contain Medical Errors. Healthcare professionals are constantly faced with increasing administrative and professional pressures, including controlling medical errors.  Using paper charts increases the likelihood of an error occurring because there is an increased chance that vital documents are missing from a paper chart, including lab reports, transcription and medication lists.  Sorting through stacks of paper to assess a patient's progress, only to find that information was omitted when making a medical decision, also has repercussions for malpractice.

An EMR can provide even more benefits to your office that will help you control medical errors and increase the quality of care you deliver to your patients.  By maintaining an interactive environment for complete patient documentation and staying apprised of your patient's medications and progress with an EMR, you can control medical errors.

 

Done by : Winibert S. Basanes

 

Email me at: Winibert_S_Basanes@hotmail.com

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