Transition from Paper to Electronic Medical Records

Transition from Paper to Electronic Medical Records

Before the creation of electronic medical records, health care providers had to use paper to keep track of patient information. When a patient checks in to a medical facility, hospital staff would have to go through countless shelves and folders of patient records to get their respective file. Often, patient files would not be easy to locate due to misplacement or misfiling. For this reason, medical industries should transition from paper-based to electronic medical records to improve staff efficiency and enhance work operations.

Why Make the Paper-Based to Electronic Medical Records Transition?

Digitizing your paper-based medical records may seem like an extensive and taxing job to do. However, the long-term benefits that you get from it would genuinely make your efforts worth it. Below are some of the advantages that you acquire from employing electronic medical records software:

1.Time

 The use of a patient tracking system helps you save time in your practice. Why search through piles of folders when you can quickly locate patient information through a patient record software with a few clicks of a button?

2.Money

 Using paper-based medical records requires designated rooms to store years of patient records and information. With patient tracking software, health care providers can repurpose the expenses allotted to maintain these storage rooms into something more essential to enable effective cost utilization.

3.Accuracy

 Legibility issues surface due to handwritten or manual entry of data. With patient record software, you remove this concern and ensure the accuracy of the patient records. With this, you avoid inaccurate diagnosis or treatments.

4.Security

Electronic medical records software comply with encryption requirements such as two-factor authentication to ensure patient information security. As such, only authorized health care workers can access these confidential files from a cloud-based patient tracking system. 

Transitioning Tips from Paper-Based to Electronic Medical Records

As discussed above, using a patient tracking system provides health care providers with many advantages. Now, let us discuss how you can smoothly transition from using paper-based to electronic medical records.

1.Formulate a Plan and Set a Time Frame

In any business or organization, transitions or changes in work operations can affect everyone from the ground up. Thus, you must include your staff in your transition plans. From every department, collect inputs from staff with different roles to guarantee that you did not forget anything in the transition. Creating a transition plan helps check and ensure that you and your staff are on the same page throughout the process.

Moreover, it is recommended that everyone is informed about how long the transition process could take. So, set a transition period and make sure that everyone follows through with it on time. Take note that, depending on the software’s complexity and functionalities, implementing an EMR software could take weeks, even months. Along the way, you and your staff may encounter various EMR usage challenges when adopting digital software. Thus, it would be best if you prepared for these potential setbacks early on.

?2.Deliberate the Needs of Your Practice

 When transitioning from paper-based to electronic medical records, you need to consider your practice’s size and needs. The size of your practice will help determine how expensive and time-consuming the transition will be. Remember that transferring patient records and information into a patient tracking system will require you to use current employees or hire new help to scan documents and images or back-entering information into the EMR software.

Moreover, you also need to consider your and your staff’s capability in handling technology. You may find some EMR software to be quite complicated (not to mention expensive) to your liking. Perhaps, you may even realize that you do not need a particular EMR feature in your practice. Then, maybe you can look for a cheaper and more basic EMR software that relatively meets your needs.

3.Terminate Paper-Based Medical Records

 If you are a hundred percent confident that you have already converted all of your paper-based medical records into the EMR system, then it is time to get rid of those towering piles of paper documents. Doing so ensures that no one can access these old documents, tamper with them, and use them with malicious intent.

However, before you destroy anything, you should keep in mind implemented laws and regulations in your area regarding the keeping and destroying medical information. You should also have a record of the documents that you destroyed and their respective dates of termination. Generally, you can destroy paper-based information by burning, cutting, shredding, and other similar methods.

Transition Now from Paper-Based to Electronic Medical Records!

Electronic medical records such as the PxTrack patient tracking system change how health care providers deal with their daily work operations. These patient record software improve patient care by helping medical practitioners make a more accurate diagnosis and treatment procedures.

Still haven’t made the transition from paper-based to electronic medical records? Hopefully, reading this article has helped shed more light into why you should! Employ electronic medical records software today!