Ever since the COVID pandemic started, the healthcare industry has undergone a digital transformation. As a part of it, so many doctors are implementing EMR in their clinics and hospitals.
It makes sense, too – as EMR offers numerous benefits to doctors, such as digital recording of test reports, prescriptions, medical history, treatment plans of patients, etc.
But the implementation of technological innovations also has a flip side. They can sometimes hit a snag and glitch up. Similarly, EMR implementation can also fail upon encountering problems.
These problems don’t prop up on their own. Several reasons exist for their occurrence.
Though, on a day-to-day basis, the following three reasons that can create problems with EMR implementation stand out.
Reason 1 – Reluctance to Switching and Lack of Infrastructure
Many times, when EMR for doctors is implemented in a clinic, the staff who are not tech savvy can be reluctant to switch to this digital mode of handling patient information. This reluctance can lead to a complete refusal to leave the pen-and-paper mode of handling patients’ medical data.
Besides this, since the setup of EMR software can be quite costly, doctors in clinics sometimes try to save on costs. And this results in the installment of EMR software without the proper infrastructure needed for its implementation.
For instance, inadequate or low WiFi bandwidth and a lack of technical support team can lead to EMR software failing to work properly.
Reason 2 – Lack of Usability and Privacy
Many EMR software in India don’t provide a user-friendly interface, and installing and implementing them in your clinic can make it challenging for the staff to transmit patients’ medical records from paper to digital screens.
Digital Transmission of a large amount of medical data can cause errors in data entry, thus leading to blunders and misdiagnoses.
Not only this, but since some implemented EMR software is difficult to navigate through, it can eat up a lot of time and decrease productivity instead of enhancing it.
Additionally, when some unreliable EMR software is implemented in your clinic, it can be very difficult to ensure the privacy of patients’ data. This is because that EMR software does not provide protection from a cyberattack and can lead to the leakage of patient data and make it accessible to unauthorized sources.
Reason 3 – Lack of Interoperability
Many implemented EMR software provide details about the comprehensive medical history of a patient rather than just the specific information needed by a user. For instance, the degree and type of detail about a patient needed by an oncologist are different from the ones needed by a nurse.
EMR software doesn’t tailor down information to just the required specifics and presents extensive medical information to a nurse. This can lead to mistakes in discerning the useful part of medical data.
Besides this, some implemented EMR software does not ensure interoperability. Interoperability is important as it helps share medical records digitally with other staff in your clinic.
For instance, when interoperability is not present, the information about prescriptions can’t be shared digitally with the pharmacy attached to your clinic. Without interoperability, EMR software implementation fails to be much useful.