EHR Advantages
The advantages of electronic health records in the clinical setting are numerous and important. In the 2012 edition of the Physician Sentiment IndexTM, published by athenahealth and Sermo, 81% of physicians said they believe EHRs improve access to clinical data. More than two-thirds said an EHR can actually improve patient care.1
The use of an electronic health records system offers these clinical advantages:
- No bulky paper records to store, manage and retrieve
- Easier access to clinical data
- The ability to establish and maintain effective clinical workflows
- Fewer medical errors, improved patient safety and stronger support for clinical decision-making
- Easier participation in Meaningful Use, Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) and other quality programs, with electronic prompts ensuring that required data is recorded at the point of care
- The ability to gather and analyze patient data that enables outreach to discreet populations
- The opportunity to interact seamlessly with affiliated hospitals, clinics, labs and pharmacies
Considering all the advantages of electronic health records, and the rapidly growing electronic interconnectedness of the health care world, even if EHRs had not been mandated by health care reform, their development and eventual ubiquity in the health care industry was inevitable.
