Electronic Medical Records

I think all healthcare practices should implement Electronic Medical Records (EMR). Did you know that wait times in America are a huge issue? The average wait time is 24 minutes in a doctor’s office and 4 hours in a hospital emergency room. Electronic Medical Records could help cut these wait time as well as save cost and deliver quality care.

When checking-in to a doctor’s office or visiting the emergency rooms the ease for patients will one day be with the swipe of their finger print or a magnetic card.  Being able to check-in this way, moving patients from paper work to a computer system, creates great efficiencies for patient and healthcare staff.   Having the storage capabilities online to find you information with a click of a button will help cut wait times. However, becoming more efficient is not the only benefit. For the patient, access to speedy and good care becomes easier and safer when records can be effortlessly shared with just a few clicks over the internet. Having a electronic medical record with important medical information; such as allergies, blood type, prescription drugs, medical conditions and history in a flash for the physician will help him deliver safe and immediate treatment. In case of an emergency having electronic medical records will help cut human error having your medical history readily available for any healthcare executive making it easy to save your life. 

Having the patient information easily ready for the doctor or nurse may help reduce excessive treatments or stop second opinion testing that may not be needed for the patient. Another way EMR will help save money for the practice will be on office supplies; paper, file folders, ink, staples, white out and any other common office materials, along with cost of labor and space. 

I think that Electronic Medical Records are the wave of the future. Granted it may be costly at first for doctors and their practice, but in the long run the cost will be outweighed by the benefits, it will save patients time and cost and help in delivering quality healthcare.