The healthcare industry is reaping multiple advantages of massive digitalization and advanced technology for the last couple of years. Oftentimes, people have experienced a situation where they got a receipt of medication from their physician. They got confused with the slip so they weren’t able to read a single word. But, that was the past. Nowadays, many physicians are adopting electronic systems to ease this difficulty for their patients.
Moreover, for more effective healthcare treatment, healthcare providers are using EMR (electronic medical records), EHR ( electronic health records), and PHR (personal health records). In this article, I have provided a detailed description of all types of health records to elaborate on the difference between PHR, EHR & EMR_ for those who are considering developing these health records.
Electronic Health Record (EHR)
Medical facilities always search for ways to save their time, reduce their operational overheads, improve treatment procedures or patient care, and handle medical care management. An EHR system helps you reduce your administrative burden, eliminate a great deal of paperwork, and save the time that you have to spend on fetching important information and patient record.
It provides significant data to healthcare staff. This data includes the patients’ prescriptions & treatment plans, diagnosis, radiology images & test results, immunization & allergies dates. According to HealthIT.gov, about 80% of providers have noticed a huge change in process efficiency and improvement in their productivity after using EHR. This way, physicians become able to give digital prescriptions to patients while saving their precious time.
Features Of an EHR System
There is a brief overview of possible features and must-haves a system should have because these EHR frameworks are not created equal. However, this list can be extended with other features that are according to the current needs of an individual client. So, what are the advantages of an EHR system for a medical practice? Imagine, you have integrated an EHR system into the business processes of your practice. What advantages will you expect?
- Information sharing for greater coordination of care.
- Quick access to ensure patient data is accurate and updated.
- Automated appointment reminders for efficient scheduling.
- Built-in statements, receipts, and invoices management.
- Save time with functionality for speech recognition and voice-to-text translation.
- Improved diagnostics with any allergies, medical conditions, and medications.
- Increased productivity of the medical practice.
- Analytics and reporting for useful insight.
Electronic Medical Records (EMR)
A landscape in which a system is composed of the controlled medical vocabulary, clinical data repository, electronic practitioner order entry, clinical documentation, and clinical decision support applications. This environment support is utilized by the providers to file, track, and manage the care delivery. This also supports the electronic medical record of a patient across the outpatient and inpatient environment.
At this point, health data can be generated, captured, consulted, and managed by the medical staff and authorized clinicians within one medical practice. In addition to this, EMR is more limited in contrast to EHR in terms of data sharing. This means that transferring significant data is only possible within a facility or an organization.
Features Of an EMR System
There is always a lot of space for EMR systems’ customization as they vary. Still, there are many features of this modern system _ such as accessibility, billing, security features, integrations, document management, organized document storage, appointment/scheduling management, document sharing within the practice, communicative tools, dynamic updating, voice recognition, and prescription writing, etc. However, before making a decision you must know the advantages of an EMR System.
- Enhance accuracy and effectiveness of care.
- Provide healthcare professionals a clear picture of their patient’s health.
- Reduce the chances of duplicate tests.
- Improve communication between their patients and healthcare professionals.
- Cheaper and simpler solution.
- Improve the effectiveness of chronic disease management and preventive care.
Personal Health Record (PHR)
Consumers can maintain a log of their medical history, health condition, medications given, allergies, treatment information, and a lot more information. These health records can also be generated by the healthcare providers and can be generated by the patients themselves as well (for patient engagement and personal use). When patients have all the vital information at their disposal_ they will make the right decisions as they have active involvement in their medical care process.
Moreover, they can share their medical information with their practitioners whenever they need it. The patient health record consists of clinical data from lab & diagnostic reports, physician consultations, wearable activity trackers, and data from monitoring devices.
Features Of a PHR System
The functions and features of such systems differ from those mentioned above. As the information stored in PHR is more personal and the backend user is not physicians but patients themselves. Some features of a PHR system are high-security standards, scanner/uploader for records, confidential data locking, integrations, and reminders. Furthermore, it is worthy to say that despite these solutions targeting the patients when it comes to the benefits of a PHR system_ providers can also get some significant advantages, such as;
- Helps to track the healing progress of a patient.
- Access to personal health records means more accurate diagnosis.
- Allow providers to make better decisions on treatment.
- Helps to track the patient’s condition remotely.
- Patients become more organized.
- For consumers, reduce the possibility of repeated tests and save money.
- Allow patients to track their health goals efficiently.
- Assure patients have easy access to health data.
Difference Between PHR, EHR & EMR
Many people are not fully aware of the difference between these health records. I have made a comparison. This will help you to take a better picture using the three essentials that are given below;
EHR:
Electronic health records can be created, consulted, and managed by authorized medical
EMR:
Electronic medical records within a single practice can be created, consulted, managed by authorized medical
PHR:
Personal health records can be created, consulted, and managed by patients.
Conclusion
EMR, EHR, & PHR are well-appreciated by the healthcare providers and patients with the same rigor_ and these systems are known for their huge contributions to the healthcare industry.
Experienced firms Like Medcare MSO can help you integrate these efficient systems into your existing frameworks_ as they excel in this arena and offer great financial outcomes.
