sdaley's blog

One of the biggest incentives for the medical community to make a switch to electronic medical records is financial. $27 billion in payments are available for doctors and hospitals who make the switch to electronic medical records. The payments are part of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

A recent article on TMCnet provides an overview of digital pen technology and how it can be used help provide better patient care and lower practice costs.

The articles cites several advantages of digital data capture.

The federal government's "meaningful use" verification period began on April 18, 2010. This allows hospitals and physician practices to submit compiled data collected on electronic health record (EHR) systems in order to receive reimbursement payments from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

According to a recent report from research firm KLAS, nearly 80% of health care providers using ambulatory electronic medical record (EMR) systems say they are confident that they will meet the federal meaningful use requirements by the end of the year.

According to a study published in the March edition of the Journal of Psychiatric Practice, the use of electronic prescribing has greatly reduced medication errors at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

A recent post on beckersasc.com provides a nice summary of Electronic Health Records and the steps ambulatory surgical centers will need to take to adapt EHR.

The post lists the steps required for success with an EHR project:

Cloud based EMR or SaaS (Software as a Service) based EMR systems represent the safest way to store patient information. Cloud based EMR technology provides an efficient solution for healthcare practices and provider that are afraid of storing patient data within an office's computer network.

The benefits of putting health data in a cloud based EMR system include:

There have been recent calls to align e-prescribing and EHR incentives. Under 2009 economic stimulus package, health care providers who demonstrate meaningful use of certified electronic health records can qualify for incentive payments through Medicaid and Medicare.

As widely discussed as electronic medical records (EMR) are today, its benefits may not always be obvious. A health technology blog recently ran a piece that provides a great list of benefits that electronic medical records can provide to improve patient care and improve practice management.

Several advantages of EMR listed include:

As with any IT product, electronic medical records software that works well today can be outdated tomorrow as standards and technology advances.

Not only should EMR customers evaluate price, functionalty and security, they should also consider how often software upgrades are required - and if they come at an additional cost.