EMR vs EHR – What is the Difference?

An electronic health record includes all of the information contained in an electronic medical record and more. The primary benefit is the collaborative nature of an EHR. They are designed to be shared with other healthcare providers and to aid the level of care provided across the care continuum. EHRs also present the ability to track additional information inclusive of demographic data, lab results, insurance information, prior authorizations and data from personal wellness devices from across the internet-of-things (IOT).

EHRs also played a significant role in the rollout of Meaningful Use, the Medicare/Medicaid program that mandates the use of EHR to improve patient outcomes and subsequently performance-based compensation. The same goes for the latest regulation – MACRA – which continues the progression of performance monitoring to impose penalties or grant bonuses to providers. The term EHR has been more commonly used than EMR as of late due to its preferential stance from both the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information (ONC).

Benefits of EHRs

• Access to the complete medical history of patients across the care continuum
• The ability to share a patient’s medical history seamlessly between general practitioners, specialists, labs, hospitals, pharmacies and anywhere else that is authorized to access it.
• Access to a variety of complex tools including: E-Prescribing, speech recognition/dictation, advanced reporting and more