Below are five key benefits of EMR interoperability that make it necessary in today’s medical landscape.
It Helps Automate a Redundant Process
EMR interoperability helps medical practices store, process, and analyse information digitally without relying on manual processes and paper records.
Moreover, EMR software offering analytics can efficiently access patient data and help medical facilities share this data within minutes. This ensures patients receive immediate care through departmental collaboration or in the event that one medical facility doesn’t offer certain services or treatments that a patient requires.
With features such as appointment scheduling and billing software, medical facilities can provide patients with timely and accurate details about their medical care. Lastly, automation can eliminate the likelihood of any errors that may stem from performing these tasks manually.
It Helps Facilitate Seamless Cross-Organisational Communication
For organisations to deliver timely medical care to their patients, especially during widespread outbreaks or large patient volumes, immediate communication is key. Organisations that use a quality EMR system ensure they can send and receive a patient’s medical history without delay.
Sending and receiving data is only one piece of the puzzle; deciphering it into understandable text is another. An EMR ensures that medical facilities can receive and decode medical information seamlessly.
It Helps Shift the Focus to The Patient
The more advanced our world becomes, the more customers expect greater convenience in all their activities. The same principle applies to the medical profession, where patients increasingly choose service providers who can offer them the necessary treatments with the most convenience and the least logistical barriers.
In this context, when medical facilities employ an EMR, it helps them skip the traditional logistical delays and barriers in providing seamless medical care. These could include retrieving relevant documents, the patient’s medical history, and much more.
In fact, according to a study conducted by Stanford Medicine, six in 10 doctors agree that the use of EMR or EHR systems has led to improved patient care, both in general and in their respective practices.
Interoperability Helps Deliver Quality Healthcare
One of the overarching benefits of using EMR is that it helps medical facilities provide quality healthcare to their patients at all times. This happens by way of monitoring various elements of patient well-being, including –
- A patient’s overall health and behaviour, including fitness, diet, alcohol and tobacco consumption, and more.
- External factors that affect a patient’s health, including the quality of air, water, and so on, in their immediate physical environment.
- Social aspects affect their mental well-being, including their income, the extent of social support they receive, emotional support, and more.
How do EMRs get access to this data?
Interoperable EMR can derive data from wearable devices and sensors that track a patient’s physical activity, water consumption, sleep cycles, glucose levels, blood saturation, and more. This creates a comprehensive picture of their medical well-being, aiding doctors in making accurate diagnoses and spotting health problems before they worsen.
When this data is shared with all the stakeholders involved in a patient’s medical care, including doctors, rehabilitation centres, caregivers, and more, healthcare quality improves.
Interoperability Helps Ensure Accurate Diagnoses
Last but not least, EMR interoperability helps ensure medical facilities accurately diagnose medical conditions across the various branches of medicine. With millions of medical error-related deaths occurring in India annually, EMR systems can help doctors accurately diagnose medical conditions. This will ensure patients receive only the most necessary care based on their needs, inspiring trust among patients and, ultimately, increasing retention.
Whether these incorrect diagnoses are caused by a lack of information on a patient’s medical history or human error in recording medical details, EMR can help reduce these numbers drastically.
In Conclusion
As you can see, interoperability in EMR systems can significantly help bridge the gaps that plague patient care in India today. Whether it’s the ability to communicate across medical facilities or share crucial medical data in seconds, EMR can help reduce administrative costs and deliver seamless patient care simultaneously.
At HealthPlix, our EMR for doctors ensures an improvement in healthcare quality across various verticals, be it cardiology, diabetology, orthopaedics, and nephrology. We aim to deliver higher standards of patient care.
If you want to offer your patients the best medical care, check out HealthPlix’s EMR systems for yourself.