The healthcare sector has experienced rapid expansion, which is why the demand for new healthcare technologies is also growing.
Another point is that illnesses don’t just go. They could be based on long-term ecological changes on a global scale, be human-made, or mutated.
Today, faster and more effective healthcare is more important than ever for humanity. That’s why it’s sometimes hard to choose one from the many options on the market.
Digital health technology, also known as traditional EMR/EHR, is one of these options. Let’s take a closer look at the role of EMR integration systems in healthcare.
Any EMR system includes the main features:
- Patient Registries
- E-Prescribing
- Charting
- Entry of Order
- Decision Assistance
EMR integration: Why is it crucial?
An EMR integration facilitates communication between an EMR platform and other medical IT systems. It improves compatibility and enables a smoother flow of medical data among different digital health instruments. Check out free hospice care san diego.
The maintenance of patient records is the most important ability of EMR. These records might have easily been misplaced, confused, etc. if they had been manually written. And human error remains one of the main dangers to modern healthcare supply.
Any medical facility should collect and construct a thorough record of each patient’s medical history to make more accurate diagnoses and treatment plans. The records must be understandable, intelligible, and rationally organized.
EMR integration: Types
There are several types of systems a single EMR can integrate with. Let’s inspect the most common integration methods.
Laboratory information system
Back then, completing endless circuits of medical cabinets were required to pass any kind of testing.
Let’s count the steps:
- Visiting primary care physician
- Doctor filling the special blank with test orders
- Moving to the appointed labs, waiting in line
- Wait for the tests to be complete
- Visiting the labs again to get the results (sometimes even written by hand)
This might sound crazy to someone, but somebody might find this way of testing very familiar. Especially those who visited public clinics in third-world countries.
Most private medical centers use LIS to make testing procedures more effective and, therefore, fast.
Let’s count the steps now:
- Visiting the doctor
- Moving to the labs (while the doctor fills an online form regarding testing, which goes straight to labs)
- Going home and obtaining results in a special section in a private account
As we can see, the Laboratory information system can be handy and not only comparing the steps but the efforts, time, and efficiency.
And the results can be seen by the doctor every time the patient visits them. So, no need to bring a ton of papers just to get diagnosed.
Clinical Trial Management System
Of course, CTMS refers to research and clinical trials. The main value of CTMS is patient safety. Doctors need to have access to the medical history and clinical trial enrollment of their patients.
Inoxoft developers say that such a system can prevent doctors from making bad decisions or faulty diagnoses because it reveals lots of factors regarding a patient’s medical history.
Billing
The main focus of EMR is patient care, while medical billing software controls the revenue. Integrating with a billing system can increase reimbursement, therefore, it should also be a priority.
Medical Device Integration
Intensive care units and operating rooms have lots of gadgets and EMR integration tools like smart beds, ventilators, monitors, etc. All those tools allow personnel to see the vital signs, like heart rate or blood pressure, in real-time.
Devices like these show lots of crucial information and, therefore, produce a big amount of data traffic. Such data is essential for both doctors and patients.
In cases like that, we need something to automate the data transfer. This can be done using MDI, which automatically transfers data from all smart gadgets to the EMR.
Telehealth
The COVID-19 outbreak led to the popularity of telehealth applications. And they remain quite popular because individuals can visit a doctor virtually, without going anywhere far.
Integrated electronic health records can be a good addition to telehealth. With the use of an end-to-end bidirectional interface the patient data can transfer forward and backward between systems.
Let’s see some of the options for integration with medical systems
Cloud Integration
This option grants access to the needed information from the EMR cloud storage. And this solution is usually budget-friendly.
Mac Integration
As can be seen from the name, this solution requires an Apple gadget to work with. Many healthcare companies use Apple because of its reliability and simplicity, therefore, Mac-integrated EMR can widen the functionality and efficiency.
ONC-Certified EMR
This option is suitable for US healthcare facilities. The Office of National Coordinator has a set of rules for development and integration in healthcare. These rules include those aimed at the proper storage and management of patient data. And there are rules for EMR to follow. Those rules include portal access, a certain section where care plans can be created, and a set of quality control rules.
Behavioral/Mental Health EMR
We can find lots of features provided in EMR for behavioral and mental health objectives integrated tools. Different clinics and therapists have different requests for EMR integration systems.
A treatment plan, lab results, patient history, and a few other very handy options can be easily performed with EMR.
Bottom line
In conclusion, it is clear how important EMR integrations are to the healthcare industry. The improvement of all healthcare procedures is made possible by integrating an EMR solution with other useful medical systems.
Such integration makes healthcare services faster and more qualitative. And what’s more important is that the patient’s data is secured and accessible to doctors.
Furthermore, the EMR integration leaves much fewer possibilities for human error. Instead of transferring data from one department to another, a doctor’s workflow could become more fluid and patient-centered. And patients can be confident that their data is protected and won’t be lost.