Within recent years there have been huge innovations in digital technology for the healthcare industry, some of which makes it easier for healthcare providers to care for an ever growing number of patients and other innovations that take patient care to new levels. Whether you are a healthcare professional or simply a patient looking at those Electronic Medical Records you’ve heard so much about, it is interesting to note just how EMRs are transforming patient care within the healthcare industry.
Digital Data Makes It Easier and Faster to Diagnose
In the past an inordinate amount of time was spent searching through patient files to find the information needed to make an accurate diagnosis – that is if the paperwork could be found in the first place! It is amazing to learn, at this late date, just how many patient files had gone missing, causing physicians to recreate to the best of their ability the data that should have been in a file that was no longer there. Also, EMR software makes it possible to keep data available in a centrally located ‘space’ so that it can be aggregated quicker in order not to miss any important details that would result in an incorrect or incomplete diagnosis.
Collection and Segregation of Patient Data Offers Accuracy in Public Health Profiles
Electronic Health Records are often collected by county and state-wide officials to assess patterns within the greater community. This is often essential when there is a growing concern that a pandemic is forming and having the ability to quickly aggregate individual records to assess regional diagnoses of similar characteristics give officials statistical information upon which to base their findings. Each patient has the right to privacy, but when there is a question of how that person’s diagnosis fits within the scope of the general population, some of this information is pulled to visualize patterns that tell a more complete story. The CDC is one agency that benefits from the use of EMR software in terms of the general population.
Hastening the Treatment Process
As noted, in the past patient files were hard copies that could contain hundreds of pages in some cases. When a rapid diagnosis was needed it was often delayed because there was much information to go through and little time to do it. Now doctors have the benefit of technology that can quickly sort through data, search for keywords and then aggregate that information so it is right there at the provider’s fingertips within minutes.
If summed up, the way in which EMRs are transforming patient care within the healthcare industry make it possible to quickly collect and access important data that provide quicker care and the means for a more accurate diagnosis. Never before in the history of medicine have doctors been given the tools they need to quickly assess and diagnose when rapid decisions need to be made in life and death situations. There are so many ways in which EMRs help individuals and the general public that it is beyond reason why there are still providers out there who don’t take advantage of this technology.
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