The spread of the COVID-19 virus is not dropping off the spike, and has engaged health organizations and providers at the ultimate stress test since last few months. An increase in the number of patients is a challenge and therefore instrumental use of Electronic Health Record (EHR) integrated with telehealth solutions has been a game-changing strategy for the providers and clinicians.
Providers are willing to use EHR application at its utmost capacity, to decrease hospital overcrowding and bring down the spike in number of the patients. Therefore, the EHR community has broadened its impact on more than just EHR implementation. EHR vendors and organizations have also stepped up to help limit the coronavirus impact by making telemedicine as a mainstream option.
Increased use of integrated ‘Telehealth’ solution.
Telehealth solutions are gaining demand due to the overcrowding of hospitals and the immense need for social distancing to help limit the spread of the virus. Integrating an EHR system with telehealth solutions can further help organizations make the fullest use of technology, and improve clinical workflows.
Catching up with the trend, EHR vendors now a days are already providing an integrated telehealth solution, specifically designed to be integrated with EHR platforms, which allows patient information to pass easily from one interface to another. When used together, telehealth and EHR systems can significantly improve the care delivery system, simplify data collection, decrease overhead costs, and reduce mortality rates for the chronically ill.
It helps with automate data entry – Without EHR and telehealth integration, clinical workflow becomes more chaotic. After consulting with a patient remotely, providers create a summary of the telehealth visit. If the telehealth system isn’t integrated with the provider’s EHR system, then the provider will have to enter that same information into the patient’s health records, which reduces efficiency in the workplace. But, integrating EHR and telehealth solution, eliminates the need for duplicate data entries. The information collected, automatically goes into the patient’s health record, simplifying the data entry process. This also reduces the chances of making an error when updating the EHR system, ensuring providers have access to current, accurate information.
It helps with synchronizing patient insurance information – Many insurance companies cover telehealth visits. Keeping track of telehealth visit coverage becomes a challenge if a provider doesn’t have access to patients’ insurance information at the time of the visit. Therefore, using an integrated telehealth solution can verify patient eligibility before they sign up for a virtual consultation. EHR integration ensures providers reimbursement for their time and services, reducing confusion and costly delays in the workplace.
It helps in streamlining virtual care experience – To enable efficient care experience, providers need to have access to the patient’s medical records while diagnosing a patient. EHR Integrated telehealth visit provides access to a patient’s medical history and facilitate the same efficient care as an in-person consultation. An integrated system also helps patients to understand their diagnoses. Patients can see a summary of their virtual visit along with the rest of their medical history. Automatically updated patient’s health records will always help patients to have access to the latest information even when virtually consulting with other providers.
With telehealth’s virtual care operations easily accessible from one platform, providers can have access to a faster and safer service that allows patients to get more of the care they need. With EHR combined with telehealth services, healthcare staff can also complete all of the necessary procedures for a patient visit in one session.
This efficient, streamlined process can be a significant time-saver. As a result, providers can see more patients throughout the day without overburdening their schedules, allowing their practices to increase on revenue. Providers may even have more time to spend with their patients during visits, improving provider-patient relationships, and the overall level of service a patient receives.
Searching the right Electronic Health Record (EHR) software that goes above and beyond the provider’s expectation is a tough task. iPatientCare’s telehealth integrated EHR is an inclusive software for all your current requirements. It contains features like online billing and scheduling for patients and e-prescribing software that can allow your medical staff to provide remote patients everything they need on one dashboard, saving time and simplifying those tasks. Here is a demo to simplify all your requirements.
