Back in 2009, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act – or the HITECH Act – was signed into law. Since then, those in the healthcare field have been scrambling to switch from paper documents to digital documents.
Have you made the switch?
If you’re like many, switching over to electronic medical records is not easy. Part of the issue is making the switch can be incredibly time-consuming. Another issue is a lot of people prefer paper documents to digital.
But document scanning doesn’t have to be difficult or time-consuming. There are plenty of reasons why digital records actually have the advantage over paper records.
5 Benefits of Electronic Medical Records
The HITECH Act of 2009 was designed to encourage the wide use of electronic health records – and there’s good reason for this. Consider the following five reasons why electronic medical records are so critical (and helpful!) for those in the healthcare field.
1. Healthcare Professionals Can Easily Access Records
You’ve probably struggled from time to time to get the information you need from your patient records. Whether you have to look through a thick file or go through boxes of archived documents – searching for patient information can often be a time-consuming endeavor.
Not so with electronic medical records. All the information you need is at your fingertips. If you’re looking for information pertaining to medication allergies, referrals to other doctors, or anything else – it’s all easily accessible.
2. Medical Files Are Now Easy to Read
Bad penmanship has been the bane of anyone who has had to read medical records or prescription slips. Not only is trying to decipher bad handwriting time-consuming – it can lead to mistakes.
Thankfully, with digital records, mistakes are kept to a minimum. You, your medical team, the doctors you refer to, and pharmacists all have access to clear, easily legible patient information.
3. Clinical Decision Support (CDS) Tools
Another major benefit of having electronic medical files is you can cross-reference information. If you need to do research to find a diagnosis – you can access recent medical records of patients with similar symptoms. CDS tools will make your work more efficient and productive.
4. Computerized Physician Order Entry
It’s easy to lose a slip of paper – whether it’s a referral slip, an order for specific tests, or a prescription slip. Thankfully, with electronic medical records, you can enter all of your orders into patient files and easily access them for future reference or send them to other doctors, the hospital, or the pharmacy.
5. More Efficient Clinical Workflow
Investing in scanning services can make your whole team more efficient. Everyone has access to the same information.
Though it may seem somewhat daunting at first, transferring over to an electronic records system will save you a lot of time, and help you to be more efficient and reduce costly or dangerous mistakes.
Medical Document Scanning – Making Life Easier For You and Your Team
The purpose of the HITECH Act of 2009 was to make sharing records between specialists easier and to ensure the security of patient records. This benefits both the medical community and the patients.
One of the main concerns of those in the medical community is they don’t have time to devote to medical document scanning.
When you invest in document scanning services, you end up saving time – both for yourself and your medical team. Records are easier to access, conferring with other specialists is faster as well. Instead of focusing on paperwork, you get to focus on what you do best – care for your patients.
Are you ready to get on board with electronic medical records? Contact us to learn more about our document copying and scanning services today.