The health
care industry has entered a new era: Patient empowerment. With the advent of
this era, patients can get personalized healthcare services. This change came
over the past decade owing to the advent of new technologies and innovations.
Thanks to the innovators who have tirelessly worked towards bringing about a
change in the healthcare industry.
Among the new
technologies, the most recognized one is healthcare information systems. Today,
from large hospitals to small hospitals, employ healthcare information systems
to manage their records and give personalized healthcare to patients. By
integrating healthcare information systems in place, hospitals can collect,
store, manage, and transmit a patient’s electronic media record (EMR) to arrive
at informed decisions.
Patients and
clinical practitioners alike get a host of benefits using Healthcare
information systems. Since there are wide arrays of technologies that come
under healthcare information systems, they can use it to cover every aspect of
healthcare.
Types of
healthcare information systems are as follows:
Electronic
Medical Record (EMR) and Electronic Health Record (EHR)
Using
Electronic Medical records, hospitals can replace the paper version of the patient’s
medical history. Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and Electronic Health Record
(EHR) provide health data, test results, and treatments. This Healthcare system
also allows sharing the records with other healthcare service providers to make
the process easier.
Practice
Management Software
Mainly used
to manage daily operations such as scheduling and billing, Practice management
software helps hospitals and small practices to automate many of the
administrative tasks. By using practice management software, hospitals can
manage their administrative tasks.
Master
Patient Index (MPI)
Master
Patient Index enables to connect separate patient record across databases. Not
only does it reduce duplicate patient records but it also reduces patient
information that can lead to claim denials.
Patient
Portals
Patient
portals are designed to allow patients to access their health data such as
appointment information, medications, and other lab results. It enables active
communication with their physicians and many other benefits.
Remote
Patient Monitoring
Used for
research purposes, it allows clinical practitioners to research certain
diseases in a group of people residing in the same area. It can be used to
monitor blood glucose levels and blood pressure of people with chronic
diseases.
Since we have
given you a comprehensive understanding of various healthcare information
systems, let us delve into understanding the other benefits of Healthcare
information systems.
Data Analytics: Data is the
most valuable asset for every organization. However, managing and organizing an
enormous amount of data is a difficult task. By using healthcare information
systems, organizations can help gather, compile, and analyze health data to manage
population health and reduce health care costs.
Collaborative
care: We cannot meet all our healthcare needs from one healthcare
service provider. We often need treatment from different healthcare service
providers. This is where the healthcare information system comes handy. It
allows healthcare facilities to access healthcare records.
Cost-effective: Healthcare
information systems are not only an efficient tool but it is also
cost-effective tools. When using healthcare information systems, we don’t have
to worry about paperwork as well as costs.
Population
health management: As healthcare information systems help to
organize and manage data, it enables to aggregate patient data, analyze and
identify trends in population.
While the
benefits of using Healthcare information systems, the only concern of using it
is security issues. That is why to keep systems secure and protect individual
healthcare information; they have brought in the Health insurance portability
and accountability act (HIPAA).
To comply
with HIPAA, companies should train employees, encrypt data, back up data,
monitor usage, buy insurance, access vendor vulnerability, and utilize
multifactor authentication.
Not only does
it improve the quality of healthcare delivery but it also increases patient
safety, decreases medical errors and strengthens the relationship between
patients and healthcare service providers. And the need for such systems is
increasing daily, particularly in developing countries such as India.
Developing
countries like India are increasingly employing Healthcare information systems
to improve the quality of healthcare delivered to patients. Famed for its key
benefits, systems such as Electronic Health Records (EHR) have brought in
revolutionary changes in the healthcare sector. Today, patients are receiving
benefits such as better outcomes as it improves all aspect of patient care,
including safety, effectiveness, patient-centered, communication,
education, timeliness, efficiency, and equity.
Though many
clinical practitioners associate with Healthcare information systems as
something used for storage of patient records and tracking inventories, the
benefits are not limited to patient records. When implemented in place, it can
offer a wide range of benefits that can improve patients as well as clinicians’
outcomes. And the positive thing about the Healthcare Information system is
that it has improved patient satisfaction.
