Certain EHR’s can provide more information to physicians than ever before, such as:
- Lab results
- Insurance coverage
- Patient’s medical histories
- Recommended treatment options
Patient care is directly improved where qualified EHRs can provide information in previously
unavailable formats. Physicians can print and view values and graphs pertaining toweight,
cholesterol levels, blood pressure, etc.
and better keeptrack of changes. This directly improves communication and relationships
between family physicianswith medical notes and consultation letter templates provided by
EHR’s.
EHR can provide alerts to remind providers when certain prevention measures are due or out of
date. Short and long term treatment goals can also be provided by EHRs. This results in
better patient care which the patients themselves
can track and appreciate.
Clinical decision support also significantly improves patient care, especially in emergency
departments. Clinical decision supportcan be integrated into EHR systems to help providers
make decisions about treatments and overall
courses of action for their patients. It can present the latest information on a drug and
even advise on patient allergies. EHR equipped with clinical decision support and computer
physician order entries reduce clinical
errors and increaseefficiency, which was previously unattainable.
References:
D.W. Bates et al., “Effect of Computerized Physician Order Entry and a Team Intervention on
Prevention of Serious Medication Errors,” Journal of the American Medical Association 280,
no. 15 (1999): 1311–1316.
Adler-Milstein J, Salzberg C, Franz C, Orav EJ, Newhouse JP, Bates DW. Effect of Electronic
Health Records on Health Care Costs: Longitudinal Comparative Evidence From Community
Practices. Ann Intern Med. 2013;159:97-104. doi:
10.7326/0003-4819-159-2-201307160-00004
