Why Electronic Medical Records Charting Is a More Efficient Process than Paper Charting

Quite a few differences are seen between the traditional paper-based medical records and the modern Electronic Medical Records(EMRs) – EMRs carry numerous benefits with respect to physician’s time and practice finances; they offer several health advantages to patients and bring about positive impacts to the environment as well.

How EMRs Help Physicians

An average primary care physician can afford to spend only around 30 to 40 hours a week in direct patient interaction. This is due to the huge volume of administrative and documenting responsibilities they are entailed with. With each patient meeting resulting in about 10 to 12 pieces of paperwork, there is little wonder doctors get distracted and end up losing time that can be spent directly on patient care. This is a major cause for concern. Electronic Medical Records Software, by its virtue of removing redundancy and eliminating duplication in health records processing, provides accurate and fast data transmission. It also brings down administrative burden on medical practices of all sizes.

The Exclusive EMR advantages Over Paper-based Medical Records

In addition to ease of use and physical differences, there are several exclusive benefits offered by EMR Software, making the transition from filing cabinet system to cloud-based system worth it. Following are a few of the advantages of adopting EMR Software:

Ø  Storage: Paper-based medical records require large storage space such as warehouses that brim with myriad documents and charts. These records not only occupy space but also prove less environment friendly. EMRs can be stored on servers, private and secure cloud, thus occupying meager space and allowing easy access to those who need them.

ØCosts: Apart from the initial setting up cost for designing and implementing EMR Software, the cost of managing health records in digital format in EMRs is considerably economical – whereas paper-based records need personnel for maintaining documents and retrieval of information, EMR Software ensures that digitally stored medical records may be easily retrieved, edited, and managed efficiently.

Ø  Security:  digital record storage systems are not as susceptible to security concerns as their paper-based counterparts – being maintained in electronic format, EMRs are saved from certain compromises such as break-in,  loss of reports caused by human error, damage due to natural disaster, and so on – storing data electronically proves better

Ø  Access: sharing paper-based records proves difficult- they need to be mailed, scanned, or hand-delivered, and have to be recovered – this proves to be time-consuming –on the other hand, EMR allow instant access to data, medical professionals can access critical medical information quickly and easily, and patients are offered the chance of getting treated promptly.

Ø  Accuracy and Readability: Unlike paper records that are difficult to understand and read, EMR software are provided in standardized terminology and typeface that make them legible, unambiguous, and clear

Health care facilities can improve their efficiency and reduce manpower needed for medical record management by adopting EMR Software. Overall patient care quality can also be greatly increased.