Let’s face it. Electronic Health Records (EHRs) can cause burnout among physicians. A study conducted by the University of New Mexico (UNM) has revealed that EHRs are a direct cause of burnout for around 13% of healthcare service providers. What’s more, researchers have found that 40% of all clinical stress for physicians is closely related to clinical culture and associated processes. Here, EHR also plays a vital role.
Many physicians keep on complaining that EHR documentation and other documents take their quality time and as a result, they just fail to spend quality time with patients and their own family members. But then, there is no point in giving up hope on EHRs. Here are five ways we can improve EHRs to make the physician’s lives better and their jobs easy.
Five Ways EHRs can be Improved in Coming Years
NLP will Enhance Workflow
Natural Language Processing (NLP) is all set to take the speech-recognition software to a new level. It changes the way medical professionals or physicians work and enhances interactions with EHRs. The NLP technology can capture audio through a microphone and define what’s being said, which information is important, and whether it should live within the EHR of patients. In a way, NLP-powered software can save valuable time for clinicians while reducing paperwork and facilitating them to give more time to patients.
Simply put, the NLP concept can enhance the efficiency of speech recognition, as service providers can detail their thoughts and words in the EHR in the most convenient way. As a result, clinician workflows and EHR experience are improved significantly. It is beneficial to switch from legacy solutions to advanced NLP-powered EHR.
Predictive Analytics for Informed Decisions
Artificial Intelligence (AI) brings predictive analytics, and the healthcare sector is one of the biggest beneficiaries. Various areas of healthcare ranging from emergency staffing to diagnosis can get benefits of predictive analytics. This method combines modeling, statistics, and data mining for predicting clinical outcomes or diagnosis.
Here, data mining and statistics are based on EHR and real-time device data. It can improve patient care and experience. Clinicians can get more actionable insights for making informed decisions with the help of a predictive analytics-based engine. It takes critical information of patients like lab results, vital parameters, and case histories. Several predictive analytics-based tools can generate the risk score for patients who are suffering from life-threatening diseases like cancer and cardiac arrest.
With the help of predictive analytics, healthcare organizations not only diagnose such patients with ease but also decrease overall mortality rates effectively. Predictive analytics-driven EHRs enable physicians to make decisions in advance.
Enhanced Patient Access
This is one of the biggest benefits of advancing technology. Healthcare organizations can provide a positive patient experience by improving the access to their health data. In a Sage Growth Partners survey, it was revealed that as many as 90% of respondents have cited that EHRs can improve the patient experience significantly.
It is better if both EHRs and patient portals work in sync because usually patients and their relatives tend to check the health record for getting the real-time update about their condition. Therefore, healthcare service providers that give the patient experience a top priority should provide EHRs in their portals for patients.
Patient portals act as a primary way to collect, store, and share the patient’s health information. It is like a bridge between patients and physicians. From viewing records to renewing prescriptions, and checking medications to sending messages to a physician securely- the patient portal can assist patients in multiple ways.
But then, it is necessary to build an advanced portal that facilitates patients and clinicians alike in storing and sharing important information in real-time. Such portals enable patients and healthcare service providers to access EHRs on their smartphones as well. This next generation of healthtech portals can play a vital role in improving patient care and patient-physician relationships.
Improved Clinical Research Quality
The healthcare sector needs extensive research to cope with the challenges related to the complexities of diseases and the patient’s condition. As technology advances, the sector has got a better research capability. Be it a drug trial participation, population group, or other aspects, the ongoing R&D activities make medical teams updated with new treatment plans and disease progression.
Advanced EHRs with all necessary aspects can not only empower physicians to make the most effective clinical decisions but also enable them to share useful insights with colleagues and research facilities for enhancing patient care. Advanced EHRs can also save a lot of time in diagnosis and provide practical information to physicians. As a result, physicians can enhance the patient experience and quality of patient care.
Increased Engagements and Compliance
Effective communication between patient and healthcare service providers is essential for strengthening relationships, increasing engagements, and improving patient care services. With seamless access to medical data, patients can ask better follow-up questions to doctors even if they are not familiar with the treatment method. Real-time communication between patients and doctors enables patients to contact doctors for correcting all the issues instantly. It can increase accuracy and improve compliance.
Better engagement can remove any errors or misunderstandings between the patient and physicians, as patients can easily contact the doctors for correcting the issues. It can further ensure the accuracy of EHRs. The healthcare sector is highly regulated and therefore, it is necessary for the healthcare app development to come up with apps that comply with prevalent regulations and remain ready for any regulations that can be imposed in the future.
Studies have revealed that patient education can ensure trust and compliance in the overall journey ranging from diagnosis to treatment. Possible medical results and positive outcomes are possible with advanced EHR solutions.
Concluding
These days, many healthcare organizations have started looking at technological advancements for improving their services and enhancing patient care experiences. Data standards, AI (Artificial Intelligence), and predictive analytics facilitate service providers to achieve these goals while generating more efficient EHR-based reports. We can expect that in the coming years, all these trends will become reality and get mainstreamed in the healthcare sector.