Electronic Medical records are essential in allowing :-
- Physicians to monitor their patients health, notice trends
- Potentially prevent hospital readmissions, quickly diagnose diseases, and reduce medical errors.
What is Meaningful Use of an EMR?
In an Interview , a physician at a family practice to learn more about how he is meaningfully using his EMR to coordinate patient care, prevent a hospital readmission and ultimately improve patient health.
On the day , Dr.just finished seeing 30 patients. In at 8 am., done by 2 pm. It was a fairly typical day for a not-so-typical family practice.
He explains what makes it not-so-typical: one woman with chest pain, a 195kg diabetic who wasn't taking his disease seriously and an elderly gentleman with pneumonia who had recently been discharged from an area hospital two days earlier – a hospital where Dr. that Doctor doesn't practice.
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| Physicians to monitor their Patients Health |
While talking with the last patient, who is trying to recover from pneumonia, Dr. logged into the EMR System, and was able to download the discharge notes for the patient. While reviewing the note, Dr. realized that the patient was not following the discharge instructions and was able to talk to him about the importance of following the discharge regimen exactly.
Dr. explains that it is just him and his wife, so there are no adult children to help him follow the regimen.
In the conversation, Dr. came to an important realization and his electronic medical record was a large part in monitoring patients health.
EMR Are Reducing Hospital Readmissions
It was the interaction with this patient that has led Dr. to an important realization of the importance of EMR.
“He wasn't taking his medications correctly. [Having an EMR] made the transition of care better… Maybe we avoided a readmission,” Dr. says.
Without electronic Medical records,Dr. says he is able to avoid “the usual craziness” of trying to track down the treating physician, who – since his patient was discharged two days earlier – probably isn't going to remember the details of the admit with any clarity at this point.
“My patient’s medical records are Lord knows where, but the fact is, I was able to connect with the hospital system within 15 seconds and I was talking to my patient while I was doing this,” he says.
Case closed. The EMR assisted in preventing a hospital readmission and the patient is now taking his medicines at the right intervals and he’s going home happily.
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