As a healthcare provider, every healthcare service uses the information to treat patients and deliver better and effective results. Today, patients and doctors expect to have better treatment and advanced technologies to know about their health. Several healthcare IT tools are used to help patients and doctors in their respective categories.
One of these common tools is PHR, i.e., Personal Health Records. It contains information like diagnosis reports, medical histories, and other related information. It is mainly managed by patients to maintain their health information in a confidential environment. It includes a variety of information from clinicians and monitoring devices.
Electronic Health Records, on the other hand, is secure and provides a digital view of the patient’s health history. The EHR records can be shared with different healthcare settings. It includes medical history, laboratory test results, age, height, weight, and other important signs. Let us know these terms in-depth and how they are different from each other.
What Do You Understand by Electronic Health Records (EHR)?
Electronic Health Records (EHR) are designed to save data and to report the patient’s health across time. With an EHR, you don’t have to track the previous patient’s record and help in keeping data accurate. Furthermore, it reduces the risk of data redundancy and paperwork.
Sometimes, electronic patient records (EPR),
EHR, and EMR are used interchangeably. EHR is a collection of health information of patients. Whereas, EMR is a patient record created by providers for hospitals and serves as a data source for an EHR.
Electronic Medical Records (EMR) are used by healthcare practitioners to manage healthcare delivery. The environment is composed of clinical decision support, clinical document applications, and order entry. It allows access to tools that providers use to make the patient’s decisions.
One of the major key features of EHR is that it can be created and managed by authorized people in a digital format. It triggers reminders and sends and receives orders and results. Plus, it decreases billing time and creates an accurate billing system.
Electronic Health Records Features and Functions
EHR offers several features that are beneficial to the healthcare industry. Here are a few common EHR features that make it useful for everyone.
1. Manages Order Effectively
It allows storing the data for tests, prescriptions, and reduces duplication. Furthermore, it can be used for setting reminders, alerts, and computerized decision-support-systems and ensures regular screenings and other practices.
2. Support Patients
It offers several healthcare tools to give access to the patient so that they can track their condition at home and could improve their chronic conditions. Additionally, it has computerized administrative tools that improve clinic efficiency and provide extraordinary services to patients.
3. Efficient and Secure
It improves the continuity of care, reduces the adverse events, and allows access to the data provided. It captures and tracks data, depending on the specific care providers. It also manages the present and historical test results to review and compare results. It secures every mode of EHR data exchange.
4. Reporting and Notifications
It allows healthcare organizations to message instantly to reporting requirements and to watch disease surveillance. It notifies the providers about the tests, services, and other information, and executes for follow up.
5. Proper Workflow Management
It allows workflow management functions, such as system interface and management to use work-flow related business rules for better results. It supports interactions with applications and modules to maintain demographic information with record-keeping requirements.
6. Health Records and Data
The information present in it is quickly retrievable and securely stores clinical information. It also notifies the health providers about the errors before a major issue occurs. Patients who don’t follow the instructions can see the problems with their recovery.
Benefits of Electronic Health Records
1. Better Coordination of Patient Care
The patient’s information is given by nurses, physicians, and other clinicians. Each information is recorded, and then the patient’s total health is shared. In case providers get the same data, it could be deleted to avoid duplicate results.
2. Cost Savings
With EHR, healthcare services facilitate easier documentation and reduce patient visits. When patients have access to their records, they could manage their outcome and schedule appointments.
3. Better Patient Care Outcomes
The centralized database in the healthcare system allows healthcare professionals to access the data from anywhere and anytime. Whether the patient is seen in a clinic or hospital, the information can be available 24*7 regarding allergies and medical history. The data received can be used to determine patient care trends, which is also an important component of healthcare services.
At first, using the EHR system could take time. But after you get familiarized with it, it becomes easy to update and modify information, depending on the requirements.
4. Manages Problem and Medication List
Electronic Health Records (EHR) creates and maintains patient problems and medication lists separately. It provides organizational guides for patient care to support clinical documentation.
Limitations of Electronic Health Records
1. High Risk of Cyber Attacks
Not only today but earlier also- the EHR database has experienced cyber-attacks. In 2018, one of the popular methods for accessing health information was a phishing scam. The hackers usually steal confidential information and use it to pay for medical care or to purchase illegally. If you are new in this field, then here are a
few ways you can secure data.
2. They are Not Interoperable
Most of the time, it happens that data is not shared across EHRs. This could be a longstanding problem and take the time to resolve it. However, several technologies and tools are available that make the data sharing easier and seamless.
What Do You Understand by Personal Health Records (PHR)?
Personal Health Records (PHR) is a record where every information related to a patient’s health is maintained by the patient. The goal of PHR is to provide an accurate summary of a medical history, which can be accessed online.
This information could include lab results and information from weighing scales. It offers a comprehensive view of the information in which people can generate themselves the symptoms and test results. It is hosted by the health care provider and is linked to an electronic health record.
Benefits of Personal Health Records
Having a PHR offers several benefits to the healthcare industry. PHR is a great way to keep health information in one place. It enables you to track and assess your health. Read more benefits here.
1. It Gets You Organized
It is noted that when parents use PHR for their kids, then kids have their checkups on time. It is used to track appointments, screening services, and vaccinations. It helps people in knowing and managing their health at their fingertips.
2. Track Health Goals
With PHR, patients can manage their health and work towards their goals. They can upload and analyze their data from home anywhere with monitoring equipment. PHR allows patients to lead a better lifestyle and to reach milestones.
Furthermore, it helps in analyzing a better picture of their health. It also saves money by not taking the test again and again.
3. Easy Access to Information
Your vaccinations, allergies, and other information can help healthcare professionals in giving the treatment in less time. With PHR, you can easily provide the information needed.
Limitations of Personal Health Record (PHR)
While PHR offers several benefits, it has certain limitations too. For instance, a patient might find it difficult to operate PHR. Sometimes, incorrect information can be fed in the database. Older patients can find this technological tool difficult-to-use and challenging.
How Personal Health Record is Different from Electronic Health Records (EHR)
Information in EHR is entered manually and is accessed by healthcare providers. It might have information from one healthcare provider or the group. A PHR, on the other hand, is controlled by the individual and includes health information from multiple sources and patients themselves.
Final Words
We, at Covetus, deal in several healthcare services and have a team of experts that know the ins-and-outs of the healthcare industry. Furthermore, they keep their eye on the latest technologies to compete with the industry.
We have expertise in a wide range of healthcare standards like
DICOM,
HL7,
CCD, and more.
