Medical software to manage patient records is not only useful in today’s digital age, but it’s necessary for outpatient success. There are a variety of benefits to a digital patient record management system, including
You may have heard of electronic health records (EHR) and electronic medical records (EMR). What’s the difference between the two and how do you determine which one works best for your outpatient clinic?
An EHR is a digital format of updated patient records that authorized users can access at any time. The main purpose of EHR is to create patient medical charts and other digital documents. EHRs are helpful because they can easily be shared across different clinics, providers, and labs. They are most often used by large hospitals.
An EHR contains details such as your patient’s treatment plan, medications, medical history, lab results, allergies, and imaging results. Some of the main advantages of electronic health records include:
EMRs are digital versions of patients' paper charts in a healthcare provider or clinician's office. Electronic medical records contain patients' notes and information that you may collect during an exam for diagnosis and treatment. EMRs have great advantages, such as:
The biggest difference between an EHR and an EMR is that EHRs are usually used by large hospitals and are helpful for transferring patient records. In contrast, an EMR is used as an internal reference among staff.
EMRs are not designed to share patient information outside your outpatient clinic. Alternatively, EHRs are designed to transfer your patient's medical information between your healthcare organization and an authorized medical care provider.
Finally, an EMR is a single-practice digital version of a patient's chart, while EHR is a more comprehensive report of the patient's overall medical history.
If you have an outpatient clinic, you will likely find an EMR to be the most useful for your patients needs. However, it doesn’t hurt to look into an EHR to see if your clinic can benefit from what it offers.
Adopting an EHR or an EMR is a great way to continuously enhance and improve your outpatient clinic. If you are looking for more ways to gain a competitive advantage, reach out to CCD Health. We work with 3 of the top 5 radiology brands in the U.S. and have experience with a wide variety of medical software.
Our patient care specialists are ready to help keep your patient schedules streamlined, and our business intelligence team can help analyze your clinic and recommend best practices to improve your bottom line.
Contact us to learn how we can help reduce your workforce cost by 50%!