When implementing new and innovative ideas, one is bound to face some hurdles, although the change is for the better. The same applies for administration of EHR and medical billing services in the health sector. Technological change, especially for EHR, has gathered a sweet-sour reaction among many doctors, healthcare providers, physicians, clinics and other facilities.
Studies and reports talk about both, positive and negative aspects of the system. One such study from RAND health addresses the love-hate outlook of physicians who are compelled to maintain EHR. Doctors from about 30 practices over six different states were surveyed with mixed feelings towards their job satisfaction.
The positive aspects of EHR implementation put down in the report highlights:
- Ease and convenience to access patient information remotely
- Better methods of tracking the health of patient over time
- Enhanced communication within different departments
- By and large, a substantial improvement in the service quality
However, the complaints from physicians have also been numerous. These include:
- The EHR system leaves no time for patient-therapist interaction
- Data entering in the system consumes a lot of time
- With the many alerts and warnings embedded in the system it creates information overload
- There is less accuracy of clinical information in most instances as the information is forced in the structured fields
Besides these, many medical professionals are of the opinion that the system is complicated to use, inefficient, cumbersome and also costlier than expected.
What can Hospitals Do to Resolve / Lessen the Downside of EHR?
With an increased number of dissatisfied physicians with the use of EHR, the responsibility majorly falls on the software vendors to design and make products that suit the provider’s requirement. On the other hand, the hospitals also need to take certain steps in order to reap maximum benefits from electronic records. Increasing the doctor’s knowledge through proper EHR training can help ease its use making it effective. Above all, the software should be easy to use for even a non-technical person to complete the task quickly.
Implementation of EHR has many positive benefits. This was proven by a study from journal health services. Researchers found that nearly three-quarters of doctors and physicians, who used electronic health records in 2011, ascertained the clinical benefits of it, which was predominantly for keeping the medical histories of the patients in digital files. Studies also revealed enhanced patient care with the EHR in place.
With technology gaining momentum in the medical sector, in the form of EHR, medical billing is another important aspect that is soon catching gear as it assures ease of management and control for medical practitioners and insurance companies alike. MedicalBillersandCoders.com is one such company that specializes in providing billing support to healthcare practitioners across all the states in the areas of increased efficiency, HIPAA compliance, denial management with accurate billing and coding.
