The misplaced chart, poor communication between providers, and fully secure patient records are all common medical concerns that technology was meant to solve.
However, as in most aspects of healthcare, not everything comes with ease, and many providers have been left wanting when it comes to their technological needs in regards to patient records.
Today, let’s take a look at the three biggest obstacles that digital patient records have faced, and what’s been done to address them.
Hurdle #1: Electronic Medical Records (EMRs)
First developed in the 1970s, EMRs revolutionized how doctors charted patient encounters. By providing physicians with a platform to digitally record and track patient health information, EMRs not only organized everything into one easy-to-access system, they slowly began improving health outcomes for patients.
Today’s practice setting, though, calls for a system that can send patient information easily and securely between providers, a capability that EMRs inherently lack.
As a result, Electronic Health Records (EHRs) took the industry by storm. An EHR incorporates all the clinical data contained in an EMR, plus the ability to collect and share patient data across healthcare organizations.
This single ability to exchange information between providers has been proven to drastically improve physician’s quality of service and help avoid fatal diagnostic errors among disparate specialists.
These benefits are the reason for HHS’s Meaningful Use program, which provides doctors with a monetary incentive for adopting an EHR.
Hurdle #2: Client-Server EHRs
All EHRs can fall under two basic groups: cloud-based or client-server. Client-server systems store data in-house, requiring a server, hardware and software be installed in the medical office. Because client-servers require the purchase of new equipment to operate, upfront costs tend to be high.
In fact, client-server systems can cost upwards of $40,000 just to set up. This doesn’t include the licensing, maintenance, updates and patch fees that come with these types of systems.
More often than not, doctors are turning to the cloud for the solution. Cloud-based EHRs can be accessed via any web browser on any of your existing computers, meaning there is no need to purchase costly new equipment.
EHRs “on the cloud” also doesn’t require a team of IT experts to install and maintain. The SaaS provider does everything internally – from system updates to security issues – taking the hassle out of maintaining the system so physicians can focus on patient care.
Hurdle #3: Secure Patient Records
Electronic records are intrinsically vulnerable to hackers, who wish to steal patient data for their own gain. However, much has been done to prevent this kind of negative behavior.
Recently, HHS released the 563-page HIPAA omnibus final rule, which reinforces providers’ responsibility to keep patient data safe and secure. The federal rule, the first major update to a 15-year-old law, incorporates provisions laid out in the 2009 Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act.
It includes a number of changes that clarify and increase the standards for protecting patient information. Although the penalty an organization can be fined for a security breach has not changed, modifications in liability and enforcement gave the law some much-needed muscle.
The most significant change is that liability during a data breach is now shared between providers and the EHR vendor. Meaning, anyone who works with a provider in a capacity that requires access to protected patient information now falls under government scrutiny.
This shared liability has caused the industry to drastically increase its encryption standards. While HIPAA only requires data is encrypted at 178-bits, the best software providers offer at least 256-bit encryption, which is considerably more secure and beneficial to patients.
Although the transition to electronic patient records hasn’t been as easy as originally intended, much has been done to solve any issues along the way. Look to cloud-based EHR vendors and HHS to keep coming up with new, innovative ways to provide support for problems that arise.
Do you know what you need when setting up a new medical practice?
