Electronic Health

Records Brief Introduction to What an EHR Is and

Benefits of Use

By: Christina Doughty

What Is An EHR? An Electronic Health Record (EHR) also known as an Electronic Medical record (EMR) is a digital collection of health information about a patient.

What Information Does an EHR Contain?

Patient's medical history

Diagnoses

Medications

Immunizations

Allergies

Radiology images and

reports

H&P

Lab results

Test results

Demographics

Progress notes

Contraindications /

drug interactions

Vital signs

Patient Benefits:Greater availability of health informationReduction of duplicate tests or potentially risky

testsDecreased delays in treatmentAccess to patient portals: patients have access

to their basic health information online This helps to keep patients well informed Better decision making for patients

Strengthening relationships with physicians

Benefits Of EHRs For Staff

Store and capture data securely, quickly, and more intuitively.

Multiple ways of data entry such as voice recognition, handwriting recognition, as well as point and click.

Multi-facility communication Allows for faster more effective patient

care Increased billing efficiency Reduce medical error as a result of more

accurate and clear record keepingThis will decrease coding errors and

sequentially increase reimbursement Alerts for allergies and dangerous drug

interactions- this helps to lower liability issues

Meets meaningful use requirements (paper does not)

EHRs make the clinician's duties more efficient all around

Benefits of EMR

Benefits Continued…

An EHR is comprised of many mechanisms that work together to capture, construct, share, maintain and store a patient’s complete health record accurately and more effectively than paper records

EHRs will make your life much easier with access at the click of a button; instead of rummaging though file after file just to find out that Jane in transcription had that file all along

EMR/EHRs Comic

Goal

The goal of implementing an EHR is to improve quality of care and efficiency by ensure that the processes, systems and technologies are available to you and your patients where and when they are needed; while maintaining the integrity of PHI with secure safeguards

EHRs Offers

Quality

Efficiency

Security

The EndThank you

For more information

HHS Privacy, Security, and EHRs

Healthit.gov - Key Steps to Implementation