Improving Patient Care: The Benefits of Electronic Health Records (EHRs)

The use of electronic health records (EHRs) has become increasingly prevalent since the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act was passed in 2009. It was enacted to modernize healthcare systems, improve patient care, and facilitate more efficient data exchange across the healthcare industry. This digital transformation has revolutionized how medical practices and healthcare organizations manage patient care, streamline administrative tasks, and, most importantly, improve the overall quality of care.

The result of this change has been positive and led to a significant impact on patient care across the healthcare industry.

Throughout this comprehensive article, we’ll explore how EHRs improve patient outcomes, streamline operations, and best enable informed decision-making. Lastly, we’ll take a look at some of the challenges EHRs have and solutions to overcome them.

Key advantages of leveraging electronic health records in your medical practice

Enhanced patient care and safety

EHRs have significantly contributed to enhancing patient care and safety within the healthcare industry. As of 2021, 78% of office-based physicians adopted a certified EHR. There is an abundance of benefits for patients by replacing traditional paper-based medical records with digital versions. These benefits include improving patient outcomes, streamlining operations, and providing more comprehensive and coordinated care.

Here are 3 primary ways EHRs contribute to better patient care:

Access to patient information

EHRs provide healthcare providers with quick access to comprehensive patient information in a digital format. This allows for a complete and up-to-date record of the patient’s medical history, including diagnoses, allergies, medications, and treatment plans.
Authorized users, such as healthcare professionals involved in the patient’s care, have secure access to electronic records. This access guarantees that they can retrieve the necessary information needed to make informed decisions. By securely accessing these records, healthcare professionals can provide optimal care and treatment to patients.

Coordination and continuity of care

HRs facilitate seamless coordination of care among different healthcare providers and settings. With patient information accessible across healthcare organizations, healthcare professionals can collaborate more effectively, leading to improved care coordination.
The digital nature of EHRs enables healthcare providers to have a complete picture of the patient’s health status. This includes sharing information on medical conditions, treatment effectiveness, and potential treatment options.

Patient engagement

EHRs empower patients to actively participate in their own healthcare. Through patient portals and personal health records, individuals can access their health information, including lab results, medication lists, and treatment plans.
Patients can communicate with their healthcare providers electronically, facilitating better engagement and improving communication channels. This enables patients to have a clearer understanding of their health, make more informed decisions, and actively manage their well-being.

The integration of EHRs into healthcare practices has shown promising results in enhancing patient care and safety. A review published in JMIR Medical Informatics highlighted how improved diagnostics and patient outcomes were achieved through using EHRs.

Implementing EHRs not only enhances patient care but also addresses potential medical errors and delays in treatments often associated with paper-based records.

Efficiency and cost savings

Electronic Health Records (EHRs) not only enhance patient care and safety but also bring significant efficiency gains and cost savings to medical practices. Research has shown that increasing levels of EHR functionality are associated with hospital operating cost reductions. Studies estimate that EHR adoption could reduce annual health spending by between $78 and $81 billion.

These cost savings are attributed to the efficiency gains and improved management facilitated by EHR systems. Let’s take a look at exactly how EHRs drive efficiency and reduce costs below.

Time-saving benefits

Healthcare professionals can efficiently document patient encounters using EHRs, reducing the time spent on documentation tasks. This efficiency allows them to dedicate more time and focus to direct patient care. EHRs streamline the documentation process, allowing healthcare professionals to capture and record patient information seamlessly. This enhances overall productivity and ensures that patient care remains the top priority.
With EHRs, healthcare providers can save valuable time by accessing patient information quickly and efficiently. The ability to search and retrieve data within electronic records eliminates the need for manual searching through paper charts.

Reduced paperwork and storage costs

Adopting EHRs removes the need for extensive paperwork involved in traditional paper-based record-keeping. This significantly reduces the administrative burden associated with managing paper medical charts.
Electronic records cut the need for physical storage space, reducing costs related to paper chart storage, like filing cabinets and off-site facilities.

Streamlined billing and reimbursement process

EHRs streamline the billing and reimbursement process by automating documentation, coding, and charge capture. This improves revenue cycle management by minimizing errors and providing consistently accurate billing.
Integration of EHRs with billing systems enables automatic charge capture and generation of billing statements, reducing manual data entry and administrative tasks.

Reduced patient admission

EHRs support the identification of at-risk populations and enable proactive management of chronic conditions, which can reduce the likelihood of hospital admissions and readmissions.
Healthcare providers can leverage EHRs to proactively monitor and manage chronic conditions. This enables early intervention and helps prevent the exacerbation of health issues. EHRs provide valuable tools for healthcare providers to stay vigilant, track patient progress, and intervene promptly when necessary. The result of this is improved patient outcomes and a reduction in costly hospital admissions.

Implementing electronic health records ultimately helps medical practices achieve their business goals. It does so by optimizing operational efficiency and reducing costs. By embracing EHR technology, healthcare providers can focus on delivering high-quality patient care while maximizing financial performance.

Clinical decision making

Electronic health records play a significant role in improving clinical decision-making and driving better healthcare outcomes. EHRs empower healthcare professionals by harnessing data analytics and providing comprehensive patient information.

This data enables them to make informed decisions and deliver personalized care. These are the key benefits of EHRs for clinical decision-making:

Improved data analysis

EHRs enable healthcare providers to leverage advanced data analysis tools to gain insights from vast amounts of patient data. This enhanced data analysis capability offers several benefits, including:

Making informed decisions: By analyzing data from multiple sources and incorporating advanced algorithms, EHRs support healthcare providers in making evidence-based decisions, ensuring the most appropriate treatment options are chosen for each patient.

Conduct large-scale studies: EHRs offer researchers access to a vast amount of de-identified patient data, facilitating studies that involve a larger sample size. This supports more robust research findings and helps uncover insights into disease patterns, treatment effectiveness, and population health trends.
Facilitate comparative effectiveness research: EHRs enable researchers to compare the outcomes of different treatment options, interventions, or healthcare practices. This promotes evidence-based decision-making and informs the development of guidelines and protocols.

More easily identify trends and patterns

EHRs equipped with data visualization and analytics capabilities help healthcare professionals identify emerging trends and patterns in patient health. This enables them to:

Spot early warning signs: By analyzing data trends over time, healthcare professionals can identify potential health risks or patterns that may indicate the need for proactive interventions. Early identification of health issues allows for timely treatment and improved patient outcomes.
Identify population health trends: EHRs enable the identification of population-level health trends, such as disease prevalence, medication adherence rates, or immunization coverage. This information helps public health officials develop targeted interventions and preventive strategies.

Support evidence-based medicine

EHRs integrate clinical guidelines, best practices, and decision-support tools to help healthcare professionals in delivering evidence-based care. With EHRs, healthcare providers can:

Access clinical decision support: EHRs offer real-time alerts, reminders, and recommendations based on the patient’s condition and relevant clinical guidelines. This ensures that healthcare professionals have access to the latest evidence-based information, enhancing the quality of care provided.
Promote adherence to protocols: EHRs can enforce adherence to established protocols and guidelines, reducing variations in care delivery. By providing prompts and reminders, EHRs help standardize practices and improve consistency across healthcare settings.

Population health management

EHRs facilitate the monitoring and management of population health by providing tools for tracking health outcomes, identifying at-risk populations, and implementing targeted interventions. With EHRs, healthcare providers can:

Identify and manage chronic conditions: EHRs enable healthcare professionals to track and monitor the health status of patients with chronic conditions more effectively. Doing so allows for proactive interventions, personalized care plans, and improved management of chronic diseases.
Monitor population-level health indicators: EHRs can aggregate and analyze population-level health data to monitor key indicators. These could be vaccination rates, disease prevalence, or health disparities. This information helps identify areas for intervention, evaluate the impact of public health programs, and improve overall population health outcomes.

Eliminate legibility errors

One significant advantage of EHRs is that they eliminate the risk of misinterpretation or errors due to poor handwriting. Healthcare providers will:

Improve accuracy and comprehension: EHRs provide clear and legible documentation, reducing the potential for errors caused by illegible handwriting. This improves patient safety and ensures accurate communication of critical information among healthcare professionals.
Enhance coding accuracy: Healthcare providers can use structured and standardized coding systems with EHRs to reduce errors and improve accuracy.

Reduce medication errors

EHRs include built-in features such as medication reconciliation and automated drug interaction alerts. These functionalities help reduce the risk of medication errors and adverse drug events by:

Enhancing medication safety: EHRs provide healthcare professionals with immediate access to a patient’s complete medication lists, including current medications, dosages, and potential interactions. Alerts and reminders within the EHR system help prevent medication errors and ensure safer prescribing practices.
Supporting clinical decision support for medications: EHRs can integrate clinical decision support tools related to medication selection, dosage adjustments, and drug-drug interaction checking. These tools help healthcare providers in making well-informed decisions when prescribing medications.

Provides physicians access to the most current information

EHRs provide physicians with instant access to the most up-to-date medical knowledge and guidelines. This enables them to:

Stay informed: EHRs incorporate medical knowledge resources, including clinical guidelines, research studies, and drug databases. This makes sure that healthcare professionals have access to the most current information when making treatment decisions, resulting in improved patient care.
Enhance interdisciplinary collaboration: EHRs facilitate information sharing and better communication between healthcare providers.

By leveraging the benefits of EHRs in clinical decision-making, healthcare professionals can make informed choices, deliver evidence-based care, reduce errors, and improve population health outcomes.

Privacy and security

Ensuring the privacy and security of patient information is of utmost importance in Electronic Health Records (EHRs) systems. Healthcare providers and organizations implement robust measures to safeguard sensitive data and protect patient confidentiality. Let’s explore the key aspects of privacy and security associated with EHRs:

Confidentiality

EHR systems enforce strict confidentiality protocols to protect patient information from unauthorized access. Access controls, including username/password authentication and role-based access, ensure that only authorized individuals can view and interact with patient data.
Patients can trust that their personal health information remains confidential within EHR systems, and healthcare providers are legally bound to protect patient confidentiality.

Access controls

Access control is essential in EHR systems to restrict data access to authorized personnel. Role-based access control (RBAC) ensures that users are granted appropriate permissions based on their roles and responsibilities within the healthcare organization. This prevents unauthorized individuals from accessing sensitive patient information.
By implementing strong access controls, healthcare organizations can maintain data integrity and minimize the risk of unauthorized disclosure.

HIPAA

EHR systems comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations to protect patient data. HIPAA establishes standards for the privacy and security of protected health information (PHI) and requires healthcare organizations to implement measures to safeguard patient privacy.
EHR systems adhere to HIPAA guidelines through multiple measures. These include encryption, secure communication protocols, regular risk assessments, and staff training on privacy and security practices. By adopting these practices, EHR systems ensure the confidentiality and integrity of patient information while maintaining compliance with HIPAA regulations.

Encryption

Encryption is a critical security measure used in EHR systems to protect patient data. It involves converting sensitive information into an unreadable format, which can only be deciphered with an authorized encryption key. This means that even if the data is intercepted, it remains secure and confidential.
EHR systems use strong encryption algorithms to protect data during transmission over networks and when stored in databases. Encryption prevents unauthorized individuals from accessing and interpreting the data.

Audit trails

EHR systems maintain audit trails to track and record all activities related to patient data. Audit trails capture information such as user logins, data modifications, and access attempts, providing a detailed history of who accessed the data and when.
Audit trails serve as an essential tool for monitoring system usage, detecting unauthorized access or suspicious activities, and investigating security incidents or breaches. They contribute to maintaining the integrity and accountability of EHR systems.

By implementing stringent privacy and security measures, EHR systems ensure the confidentiality of patient information, protect against unauthorized access and comply with regulatory standards. These measures instill patient trust in the security of their personal health information.

Challenges associated with implementing EHRs

The implementation of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) brings numerous benefits to healthcare organizations, but it also poses certain challenges. Successfully navigating these challenges is essential for optimizing the use of EHR software and systems.

A 2020 systematic review of 26 studies published on the barriers of adopting EHRs mentioned in the literature between 2008 and 2014 uncovered a recurring number of challenges. The most frequently referenced barriers are privacy and security concerns, start-up costs, workflow disruptions, system complexity, patient engagement, patient access, and interoperability.

These barriers remain today, however, new solutions and strategies for overcoming them exist. With the proper understanding and preparation, they can easily be implemented.

Let’s look at the common challenges associated with implementing EHRs and strategies to overcome them:

Patient access to records

Enabling patients to access their health records empowers them to take an active role in their care. It promotes transparency and allows for informed decision-making. Challenges in this area include:

Privacy concerns: Balancing patient access to health records with privacy concerns is a challenge. Implementing secure patient portals with robust authentication measures, educating patients about their rights and responsibilities regarding health information, and ensuring compliance with privacy regulations address these concerns.
Health literacy and technological barriers: Limited health literacy and lack of technological literacy can hinder patients’ ability to access and understand their health records. Offering user-friendly patient portals, providing educational resources, and offering support services for patients facing technological barriers promote effective patient access to records.

Interoperability

Interoperability refers to the seamless exchange of patient information between different healthcare systems and providers. The lack of interoperability can hinder the effective utilization of EHRs and limit their potential benefits. Common challenges include:

Data standardization: Healthcare organizations often use different data formats and coding systems, making it challenging to exchange and interpret information accurately. Implementing standardized data models and coding systems, such as HL7 and SNOMED CT, promotes interoperability.
Integration with external systems: EHR systems need to integrate with various external systems, such as laboratories, pharmacies, and imaging centers, to ensure smooth information flow. Adopting industry-standard integration protocols, like Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR), facilitates seamless data exchange.
Lack of universal connectivity: Inadequate network infrastructure and varying levels of technological readiness among healthcare organizations can hinder interoperability. Collaborating with stakeholders, investing in robust networking infrastructure, and promoting the adoption of interoperability standards are crucial steps toward achieving universal connectivity.

User experience and usability

User experience and usability are essential factors that influence the acceptance and adoption of EHR systems by healthcare professionals. Challenges in this area include:

Complexity and learning curve: EHR systems can have intricate interfaces and functionalities, making them overwhelming for users who are unfamiliar with the technology.

Dr. Azza El.Mahalli, a Professor of Public Health at Abdul Rahman Bin Faisal University, shared some insights into how the complexity of EHRs can be challenging for physicians. She referenced how doctors can be used for handwritten notes and short summaries. This conditioning can often lead them to find it time-consuming and burdensome to type outpatient records, notes, and prescriptions digitally for EHRs.

Because of this difficulty, physicians may need a significant amount of additional time to complete this data-entry process. This can sometimes even interrupt their consultations with patients.

Imagine a doctor having to stop in the middle of discussing a patient’s health to deal with typing in information. This interruption breaks the natural flow of care and attention they want to give to their patients.

Dr. Mahalli’s insight sheds light on a common problem experienced by many physicians. It’s not just about the time it takes to type the data; it’s about how this task affects the quality of care doctors aim to provide.

Providing comprehensive training, intuitive user interfaces, and ongoing support can mitigate the challenges associated with the learning curve.

Workflow disruptions: Poorly designed EHR systems can disrupt established clinical workflows, leading to reduced efficiency and frustration among healthcare professionals.

As mentioned above, having to input data into various fields on an EHR platform can interrupt a consultation with a patient.

Engaging end-users in the design and customization of EHR workflows, conducting usability testing, and continuously refining the system based on feedback can optimize workflow integration leading to better care.

Lack of customization: Every healthcare organization has unique needs and workflows. The lack of customization options in EHR systems can limit their adaptability to specific clinical practices.

The ideal EHR system can be achieved by working with physicians to identify their individual systems and processes. A highly tailored process will reduce challenges for providers while improving patient experience.

Implementing customizable features and allowing flexibility in system configuration enables healthcare organizations to tailor EHRs to their specific requirements.

Privacy and protection

Protecting patient data from breaches and cybersecurity threats is a critical concern when implementing EHR systems. The challenges here are:

Data breaches: EHR systems house sensitive patient information, making them attractive targets for data breaches. Implementing robust security measures, including access controls, encryption, firewalls, and intrusion detection systems, helps protect against unauthorized access and data breaches.
Cybersecurity threats: The evolving landscape of cybersecurity threats poses challenges for healthcare organizations. Implementing regular security assessments, conducting vulnerability scans, ensuring software patch management, and educating staff on cybersecurity best practices are important for minimizing cybersecurity risks.
Compliance with privacy regulations: EHR systems must adhere to privacy regulations, such as HIPAA, to ensure the confidentiality and privacy of patient data. Implementing privacy policies, training staff on privacy practices, and conducting regular audits to assess compliance help maintain adherence to privacy regulations.

Data integrity and accuracy

Ensuring data integrity and accuracy is vital for the effective use of EHRs. Challenges in this area include:

Data entry errors: Mistakes made during data entry, such as typographical errors or selecting incorrect options, can compromise the accuracy and integrity of EHR data. Implementing user-friendly interfaces, providing training on data entry best practices, and using data validation techniques help minimize data entry errors.
Incomplete or inconsistent documentation: Incomplete or inconsistent documentation can lead to gaps in patient information, affecting care coordination and decision-making. Implementing standardized documentation templates, providing guidelines for thorough documentation, and conducting regular chart audits help ensure data completeness and consistency.
Data migration and conversion: When transitioning from paper-based or legacy systems to EHRs, data migration and conversion challenges may arise. Ensuring accurate and complete data migration through proper data cleansing, validation, and testing processes is crucial to maintaining data integrity.

Provider patient engagement

Effective provider and patient engagement is essential for maximizing the benefits of EHR systems. Challenges in this realm include:

Limited patient involvement: Engaging patients in their healthcare journey and enabling access to their EHRs can enhance patient engagement. Educating patients about the benefits of EHRs and facilitating communication between patients and healthcare providers through digital channels promotes patient engagement.

By addressing these challenges with appropriate strategies and solutions, healthcare organizations can overcome implementation obstacles and maximize the benefits of EHR systems.

Conclusion

Electronic health records have led to enhanced patient care and more streamlined operations and have facilitated informed decision-making. The advantages of EHRs have transformed the way medical practices and healthcare organizations manage patient information and deliver care.

Through EHRs, healthcare providers gain quick access to comprehensive patient records, enabling enhanced coordination and continuity of care. The integration of these digital records contributes to improved patient care and safety. In addition, electronic health records reduce medical errors, increase patient engagement, and drive efficiency.

Healthcare organizations can also face various challenges using EHRs. However, implementing appropriate strategies and solutions can overcome these obstacles. By addressing these challenges head-on, healthcare organizations can navigate the complexities and unlock the full potential of EHR systems.

As the healthcare industry continues to evolve, EHRs will play a crucial role in shaping the future of healthcare. By leveraging the full benefits of electronic health records, medical practices, and healthcare providers will enhance the quality of care, optimize operations, and improve patient outcomes.