What are EHR and Telemedicine?
With the ever-growing telemedicine industry, software companies and healthcare professionals are quickly adapting to meet clinical needs. But how do you streamline patient care with a digital interface like most current telehealth software?
It’s simple – integrating electronic health records (EHR) and telemedicine to create a practice management software solution for your organization. Combining EHR and telehealth software means simplifying the clinical workflow for everyone involved. There are currently many ways medical providers can adopt HIPAA-compliant, standardized, and regulated EHR software.
Electronic Medical Records (EMR)
To understand integrating EHR systems with telemedicine software, we must understand the difference between electronic medical records (EMR) and electronic health records (EHR). While they may sound similar, both serve distinct but important purposes within the healthcare setting.
Electronic medical records, commonly referred to as EMR, can be thought of as digital versions of paper charts and forms that healthcare organizations use in office or clinical settings. Usually, this software will contain their medical information and treatment history in a more specific healthcare setting.
For example, a patient seeing their cardiologist will have an EMR record detailing their previous cardiology visits, surgeries, and any notes a nurse or physician may make during a patient’s office or telehealth visit.
Why does your practice need EMR Software?
A major benefit to using EMR is the ability to store large amounts of data with a lot less space! Digital medical records make interfacing with other offices, laboratories, hospitals, and pharmacies simple and painless. This creates overall lower operating costs for clinics.
In addition, telemedicine electronic medical records software helps lower the chance of human error as well – using automated software helps catch minor errors that humans might not. Catching spelling errors can feel like small fry next to electronic health records software catching conflicting treatments for a patient.
Just like healthcare practices, there is no “one size fits all” solution for EMR systems. Look for EMR software consultants that understand the scale of your practice and the business needs associated with it.
Electronic Health Records (EHR)
While EMR systems can be a great way to integrate telehealth software with your practice, they’re not a complete solution. EHR is a more comprehensive digital record of a patient’s health information that is maintained across multiple medical providers and organizations.
Let’s go back to our cardiology patient from before – EMR software means that their cardiologist has access to all of their past visit information. But what happens when they’re referred to an imaging center for an MRI?
Practices that use an EHR have higher interoperability. Utilizing electronic health records software means the patient’s cardiologist has easy, direct access to the patient’s imaging history and results and can share pertinent information with the imaging center.
What Technologies are Used in Telemedicine EHR Software?
EHR software typically uses a range of technologies to manage, store, and share patient health information in a digital format. Some key technologies used by EHR software can include:
- Database Management Systems (DBMS): EHR software needs to use a DBMS to store and organize patient data. This usually includes demographics, prior visit history, previous diagnoses, any medications a patient might be taking, and lab results.
- Health Information Exchange (HIE) Technologies: EHR systems often use HIE technologies to facilitate sharing of patient health information between healthcare organizations and providers, allowing for a more comprehensive view of a patient’s health history.
- Patient Portals: EHR software often includes a patient portal, which allows patients to access their own health information, such as lab results and appointment scheduling, as well as communicate directly with their healthcare professionals.
- Electronic Prescribing Technologies: Incorporating e-prescribing technologies allows providers to send prescriptions electronically to pharmacies, reducing the risk of errors and improving patient safety.
Telemedicine
Telemedicine is the practice of providing medical care and consultation using digital communication such as video conferencing, mobile apps, and remote patient monitoring. Telemedicine services allow patients to access quality medical care from the comfort of home, improving healthcare access for unserved communities like rural areas.
With the ever-changing abilities of telemedicine app development, it’s easy for providers to find a solution custom tailored to their needs and budget. Read on to see why integrating EHR into your healthcare practice could be the right decision for you!
Understanding the Benefits of EHR Telehealth Integration
Automated Entry of Patient Health Information (PHI)
Integrating EHRs with telehealth can automate the entry of patient health information (PHI), providing several benefits such as increased accuracy, efficiency, and convenience.
Automated entry of PHI can reduce the risk of errors and omissions, streamline workflows, and enable healthcare professionals to quickly access and update patient medical records in real time, regardless of location. This can lead to more coordinated and effective care, improved patient outcomes, and better patient engagement through remote monitoring and virtual consultations.
Synchronized Patient Information
Integrating telemedicine electronic health records with telehealth can help synchronize patient information by enabling real-time data exchange and seamless communication between healthcare providers and systems. This means that patient health information, such as medical histories, lab results, and medication lists, can be shared and updated in real time, regardless of location or healthcare setting.
As a result, providers can make more informed clinical decisions, avoid duplicative tests and procedures, and provide more coordinated and effective care to their patients. Additionally, patients can benefit from having a more complete and accurate picture of their health information, improving their understanding of their conditions and helping them to manage their health better.
Deliver a Quality Virtual Experience
EHR systems can deliver a quality virtual experience by providing healthcare professionals with real-time access to patient data, seamlessly integrating with telehealth platforms, supporting remote monitoring capabilities, and providing patients with engagement tools such as a patient portal.
These features can help improve patient outcomes by enabling informed clinical decisions, early identification of potential health issues, and patient empowerment. EHR systems can also help providers deliver a smooth and convenient virtual experience for both providers and patients.
Real-time Health Data Access
A healthcare professional may offer audio/video consulting to their patient while referring to their health history easily. Before granting medication prescriptions, doctors can check the patient’s allergy or the pharmacist’s information using the EHR. When telehealth and EHR systems merged, the service provider now had real-time access and enabled a more efficient workflow.
HIPAA and HL7 Compliance
Privacy rules restrict access and disclosure to protect against unauthorized access. EHR software vendors are required to comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations, which are designed to protect the privacy and security of patient health information.
EHR software vendors must follow strict rules around access controls, audit trails, data encryption, and other security measures to protect patient health information against unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. In addition, EHR software vendors must sign business associate agreements with covered entities to ensure that they are meeting HIPAA requirements.
Security and Compliance
Health providers should take security into consideration if they wish to protect their patients’ data. Electronic records have a commonplace place in the healthcare industry. Telemedicine integrated with electronic medical records ensures data protection. HL7 and CCHIT also provide support in a variety of healthcare-related fields, such as healthcare information and technology. When an EHR system integrates fully with TMS systems, a clinical team can have better patient experiences and optimize the entire operation.
Intuitive and Simple to Use
Since doctors are not expected to have IT expertise, it’s important that the software is intuitive and easy to navigate. Efficient use is critical when moving from paper to electronic, but daily practice must continue smoothly.
When searching for a software partner to help bring EMR technologies to your practice, make sure they understand your practice’s current needs and abilities. These tools should be something that elevates your practice’s management, not undermines it.
Positive Patient Experience
EHR systems can provide a positive patient experience in several ways:
- Improved Communication: EHR systems can improve communication between patients and their healthcare providers through features such as secure messaging, appointment scheduling, and telehealth capabilities. This can make it easier for patients to access care and communicate with their providers.
- Access to Health Information: EHR systems can provide patients access to their health information through a patient portal. This allows patients to view their medical histories, lab results, and medication lists, which can help them understand their conditions and take a more active role in their care.
- Reduced Wait Times: EHR systems can help reduce appointment wait times by streamlining administrative tasks and enabling online appointment scheduling. This can help patients get the care they need quicker and more conveniently.
- Better Care Coordination: EHR systems can help improve care coordination between medical professionals, leading to better patient outcomes. For example, providers can easily share patient information and collaborate on treatment plans, which can help ensure that patients receive the most appropriate care.
- Remote Monitoring: EHR systems can support remote monitoring of patient health data, which can help identify potential health issues early and provide timely interventions. This can help patients stay healthy and avoid hospitalization.
Reduced Data Errors
EHR systems reduce potential data errors by providing medical professionals with standardized terminology and coding systems to ensure consistency in documentation practices. These systems also perform data validation checks to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the information and provide clinical decision support to help providers make informed decisions about patient care.
EHR systems also automate routine tasks such as medication ordering and lab result reporting, reducing errors due to manual data entry or transcription errors. Additionally, EHR systems provide real-time access to patient data, making the most up-to-date information available to providers for clinical decision-making.
How to Efficiently Integrate EHR and Telehealth Capabilities
Create Customized Telemedicine Templates
Once you have identified the key components of a telehealth visit, you can customize EHR templates to include them. Create templates specifically designed for telemedicine visits, including fields for video conferencing links, remote monitoring data, and secure messaging.
Keep Billing Notes
Efficiently integrating EHR to keep billing notes requires creating a customized billing template within the EHR system. This template should include fields for all necessary billing information, such as patient demographics, insurance information, and billing codes.
Staff should be trained on how to use the template effectively, and the template should be regularly updated to ensure compliance with changing regulations and billing requirements.
Integrated Medical Billing Software
Using EMR software simplifies the procedures of the healthcare practice. Among the important functions are the billing of services rendered and communication with insurance companies.
Medical billing software works well with the software for electronic health record processing. Each clinical record seamlessly complies with the required standards and forms a financial document to be electronically submitted to the payer (insurance carrier) to validate.
This simplifies operations and assures the same level of trust between the stakeholders regarding the company’s financial health.
Use Reports and Analytics
Efficiently integrating EHR to use reports and analytics requires first identifying the key performance indicators (KPIs) you want to measure. Once these KPIs have been identified, you can customize your EHR system to capture the necessary data and generate reports that will provide insights into your practice’s performance.
Regularly reviewing these reports will allow you to make data-driven decisions and improve the overall quality of patient care.
Integrate Telehealth and Interoperability
In the case of telehealth visits, the information is automatically entered into patients’ health information and simplifies data entry for them. This eliminates occurrences of errors and enables providers to access updated and accurate patient data.
The integration with the EMR allows for fewer records to be duplicated. In virtual visit situations, the telehealth service integrates with the EMR, ensuring that patient records are collected in a single place and that the telemedicine data is accessible from a central location.
Respect Confidentiality
EHR systems can use encryption to protect patient data from unauthorized access. Encryption ensures that patient data is unreadable to anyone who doesn’t have the encryption key, making it more difficult for sensitive data to be compromised.
Using EHR can respect patient confidentiality by implementing measures such as access controls, encryption, audit trails, and secure messaging. These measures help protect patient data and ensure that it is only accessed by authorized individuals.
What to Look For in a Potential EHR Software Vendor
EMRs have various software packages that are customized for specific applications or functions. When evaluating potential telemedicine EHR software vendors, it’s important to consider factors such as functionality, interoperability, customization, usability, training and support, security, and cost.
By carefully evaluating these factors, you can select an affordable EHR software vendor that meets your organization’s needs and helps improve the overall quality of patient care.
Reach out to Geneca and find out more about what could best benefit your practice. Our team has over 20 years of experience helping clients find custom-fit solutions for a variety of industries and budgets. Contact us today!