Maintaining records of your patients safely and securely is crucial not just from the point of view of your practice but also from a legal and practical point of view. It doesn’t matter if your practice is purely medical or purely aesthetic in nature. Every practice with a significant number of patrons can do so much better with the use of an Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system.
Imagine this scenario. You run an aesthetic practice and work with over 25-30 patients on a busy day. An EMR system will help in collecting all the necessary information of these patients and collate the data in a manner that it makes sense to you. EMRs convert data into information that can make an impact on your practice.
Let’s look at 8 ways in which an EMR system helps keep your practice organised.
1. Higher Levels of Patient Care – At the end of the day, it is patient care that matters. You may be organised to the tee but if such organisation does not lead to a higher level of care for the patients, your purpose as a practice is not served. As per published research, Electronic Medical Records improve quality of care and patient outcomes.
2. Smooth Onboarding Process for Patients – As they say, first impression is the last impression. When the patient books an appointment, the onboarding staff can start using the EMR software to input the basic details such as name, age and other basic details. Later, insurance details can be fed so that it helps in telling the patient what kind of documents he or she shall be required to bring in when they come in for their appointment.
3. Proper organisation of medical information – An EMR system ensures that the medical team and the administrative team do not work in isolation. All the information goes into one single database. However, since the sensitive nature of medical information makes it important to restrict access to medical professionals only. This can be easily achieved by an EMR system.
4. Improved Delivery of Services – In today’s world, data is plenty but information is often considered scarce, especially in the medical field. The use of an EMR system provides crucial inputs to your decision making in the practice. This includes both medical as well as administrative decision making. This is how you can keep your practice organized with Calysta as well as deliver quality services to your patients.
5. Organised Work Flow – This can be best understood with the help of an example. Suppose you (as a medical professional) are dealing with a patient in your practice. Whatever information you need about the patient can be accessed in one place. Earlier, you had to get your secretary to coordinate with the local lab to get their test results on your email and so on. If you link your EMR database in an organised manner, the test results can be accessed in your dashboard.
6. Better Patient Management – By patient management, we mean that you will be able to treat more patients in a day with the use of an EMR. A lot of the time that gets wasted in getting information of a repeat patient or even in cancelled appointments is reduced with the applicability of an EMR. From appointments to treatments, everything is in the system.
7. Innovative Methods – The use of an EMR system also introduces the novelty factor in the organisation of your clinic. It is no secret that Americans prefer texting to calling. This crucial piece of information can be used to the benefit of your practice too. For instance, something as simple as text messages asking your patients to confirm their appointments can save a lot of time and energy.
8. Delegation to Technology – The biggest advantage of an EMR system is that a lot of the tasks that had to be done manually can now be done by the system. The aspect of human error goes out the window and crucial time can be saved. Like in a physical only world, a doctor has to not just take notes, but also date them and file them chronologically. One small error can cause a lot of heartburn later.
As is evident from the points above, an EMR system for your practice as well as a patient engagement software, makes your life a lot easier.
The choice of an EMR system is not an easy one. A practice can be seriously impacted by a wrong choice. Also, there are important state and federal data privacy regulations that you need to comply with. It makes sense to choose an EMR system that not just helps your practice but is also legally compliant.