Question

Describe how communication can be improved with the use of EHR system and identify some etiquette tips pertaining to communication.

Answer 1

Saving the patient information in the EHR (Electronic health record) is one of the common technical advances utilized in most of the healthcare facilitates.

The primary purpose of using electronic medical record systems is to store huge patient data and to share the data among various healthcare entities over a geographical region.

The three forces driving the change to the EHR are,

1. Increase in the number of patients and increased health costs
2. Increased number of immigrations and constantly moving people
3. New diagnostic and preventive healthcare procedures that require EHR

The EHR allow the physician to quickly access the health history of the patient. The laboratory reports can be viewed using smart phones without using office mails or faxes. This ensure better and uninterrupted patient care. The EHRs also play a key role in remote therapy or telemedicine.

Sharing the health information of the patient ensures better and uninterrupted patient care, particularly when the patients switches to different doctors. Sharing the patient’s health information prevents the delay in medical diagnosis, which greatly reduce the healthcare costs. This also saves much more time and costs of administration for the healthcare facility.