What are Electronic Medical Records (EMRs)?

a doctor on a tablet looking at electronic medical records

What do Electronic Medical Records Mean in Healthcare?

Electronic medical records (EMRs) are the digital equivalent of a patient’s paper-based records or charts at a clinician’s office. EMRs typically contain general information such as comprehensive medical history, diagnoses, medications, allergies, lab results and treatment plans for a patient as collected by the individual medical practice. 

What are Electronic Medical Records Used For?

EMRs are used for a variety of purposes by healthcare organizations and providers. Some of these purposes include: 

  • Centralized patient information – Consolidated patient information enables healthcare providers to gain a more comprehensive view of a patient’s health and make well-informed decisions. 
  • Coordination among professionals – Physicians, specialists and other healthcare professionals can access a patient’s EMR to coordinate better care options and boost consistency and transparency during patient care. 
  • Prescription management – Healthcare providers can send electronic prescriptions to pharmacies reducing the risk of errors and boosting the prescription management process. 

Overall, EMRs are generally used for enhancing patient care, improving communication and collaboration among healthcare professionals in a single practice, optimizing workflow efficiencies and facilitating data-driven decision-making for patients. 

Benefits of EMR Implementation for Healthcare Providers

By implementing EMRs, patient data can be tracked over an extended period of time by multiple healthcare professionals. It can help identify those who are due for preventive checkups and screenings and monitor how each patient measures up to certain requirements like vaccinations and blood pressure readings. EMRs are designed to help organizations provide efficient and precise care. 

Perhaps the most significant difference is that electronic medical records are universal, meaning that instead of having different charts at different healthcare facilities, a patient will have one electronic chart that can be accessed from any healthcare facility using EMR systems. 

Financial Benefits of Electronic Medical Records

Should you decide to implement electronic medical records in your facility, you may experience a decrease in overall expenditure and an increase in overall efficiency. Cost-benefit analyses have indicated positive financial returns from using an EMR system. Depending on how well EMRs are leveraged and utilized within a healthcare organization, they are great drivers of cost-effectiveness and enhancing productivity in workflow processes. 

What is the Difference Between EMR vs EHR?

An electronic health record (EHR) is also a digital version of a patient chart, but it is a more inclusive snapshot of their medical history. The main difference between EMRs and EHRs is that EHRs are designed to be shared with other providers, so authorized users may instantly access a patient’s EHR from across different healthcare providers. 

This difference in transferability and shareability between these two patient data management tools illustrates the roles they each play to different organizations and providers; EMRs are utilized primarily by one single practice and the different professionals present in that practice, whereas EHRs can “follow” patients wherever they go across providers and practices. 

Improving Patient Care with Electronic Medical Records

EMR applications can boost the quality and safety of patient care. With an EMR system, you can prescribe and order medication for patients online more safely as you will know if the patient was prescribed any medication from another physician. You can also immediately know each patient’s medical problems and any allergies they may have. With such detailed information available at your fingertips, your staff can more easily give your patients the safe, efficient and personalized care that they deserve. 

EMR systems are also designed to help patients and their families become more involved in the healthcare process. One example of this is seen when clinical summaries, available for more than half of all visits, are sent to patients within 3 business days. Each summary contains information about the care provided during the visit, medications prescribed, upcoming/follow-up appointments and related medical advice. The objective of the summary is to make patients and their family members more aware of what occurred during the visit and how they can assist in patient care. 

Patients can also become more involved in their care by exploring patient-specific education resources. EMR systems will provide links to articles, videos, and images that can help patients better understand their specific healthcare situation. With this technology, patients can make more informed decisions about medical procedures and lifestyle adjustments. 

Using EMR systems, patients can quickly and easily receive electronic copies of their healthcare information upon request. In the event they choose to change healthcare providers, the universal detailed medical record will help give the patients’ new healthcare provider a comprehensive understanding of their medical history and current state of health. Healthcare facilities will still be able to exchange patient information if the patient does not request it. 

Foster Your Growth in Healthcare with USF Health

USF Health’s Morsani College of Medicine offers online master’s degrees and graduate certificates in healthcare informatics and health analytics, which are designed to sharpen your skills and knowledge in the healthcare field so you can make a difference in the dynamic, fast-paced healthcare industry.  

Students in the Graduate Certificate in Health Informatics program learn the latest processes for electronic storage and secure sharing of vital patient medical records, as well as integrating informatics and clinical sciences with quality patient care. The Graduate Certificate in Healthcare Analytics can provide you with a foundation of knowledge and skills to master the collection, organization and analysis of health data using the analytics life cycle. 

These programs serve as a foundation for growing your skills in electronic healthcare data management and help make you a vital part of a healthcare informatics team and a distinguishable candidate in the health informatics job market. 

And, USF Health’s programs have a proven track record of student success stories such as Sabita Maharjan, a graduate of the Master of Science in Health Informatics. 

“While working as a medical technologist, I was impressed by how technology made our jobs so much easier through electronic medical records. I was then interested in the technology field while still being associated with healthcare.”  

Learn more about the Graduate Certificate in Health Informatics and Graduate Certificate in Healthcare Analytics programs today and start developing skills for your future in healthcare. 

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