Benefits of Using an EMR or EHR Over Paper Charts

• Legibility of Notes – No more dealing with various handwriting styles since notes are typed.
• Accessibility of Charts – Indexed and easily searchable by multiple identifiers. No more searching the entire clinic for a lost paper chart.
• Transcription Costs Savings – Many users have been able to save on transcription costs by implementing an EMR.
• Space Savings – Many people are able to save space where they’d normally be storing shelves and shelves of paper charts.
• Eliminate Staff – This almost never happens immediately. Usually this happens through natural turnover of employees and usually occurs with your front desk or medical records staff.
• Eligibility for Pay-for-performance – It could take two years or more for you to implement an EHR and implement a meaningful quality improvement mechanism that would lead to your receiving payments from these programs.
• New Physician Recruitment – Many new physicians are looking for practices that use an EHR and will only work for an organization that uses an EHR.
• Multiple Users Use a Chart Simultaneously – Most EMR programs support multiple users accessing a chart at the same time. Many even allow multiple people to chart notes at the same time also.
• Lab Results Returned Automatically – This depends on a lab interface, but is more reliable and integrated with the care given.
• X-Ray Results Returned Automatically – This also depends on a X-ray interface, but has the same possible benefits of a lab interface.
• Save a Tree and the Environment – You won’t eliminate your use of paper, but you can significantly reduce the amount of paper/charts you use in your practice.
• Electronic Prescriptions – Scripts sent electronically or printed out avoid problems of legibility by the pharmacy receiving the script.
• Spell check – Many EMR software includes a spell check and often even include a medical dictionary.
• Disaster Recovery – Depending on your EMR backup schedule, you can store a copy of your data in multiple locations for better disaster recovery. Plus, in an emergency you could carry a backup of your data with you. Think about how you’d carry a room full of charts with you in an emergency.
• Drug to Drug Interaction Checking – Most EMR provide a database of Drug to Drug interactions when writing a prescription.
• Drug to Allergy Interaction Checking – Most EMR provide a database of Drug to Allergy Interaction checking when writing a prescription.
• Patient Safety? – Better information access, reduced gaps in communication between providers and reduction in duplicate testing.
• Integration with Physician Dispensing Software – Could make more money using a physician dispensing (yes, I know they can’t really “dispense”) software
• Improved Quality of Care
• Increased Efficiency
• Better Patient Services
• Improved Workflow
• Improved Patient Communications
• Improved Accuracy for Coding Evaluation and Management
• Improved Drug Refill Capabilities
• Improved Charge Capture
• Improved Claim Submission Process
• Reduced Medical Records Transportation Costs