Emergency department (ED) physicians work in one of the most fast-paced and demanding environments imaginable. At any moment, patients suffering from all sorts of afflictions can come through the door.
Accordingly, ED doctors need EHR software that allows them to effortlessly switch between conditions and rapidly enter patient data. However, not all EHRs are up to the task.
Many systems lack the functionality ED physicians require to effectively treat patients. So today, we’ll take a look at the features emergency rooms should look for in efficient EHR software.
Minimize the Mundane
According to a recent American Journal of Emergency Medicine study, physicians spend nearly 44% of their time entering data into an EHR. And with emergency room doctors seeing an average of 2.5 patients an hour, many are finding it increasingly difficult to use electronic health records without hurting productivity.
One problem is that EHRs aren’t streamlined. The same study found that ED physicians clicked their mouse approximately 4,000 times in a typical 10-hour shift. This is not only dwarfs the amount of clicks needed from other specialists, but can lead to physician fatigue as well.
The problem is that some EHRs simply aren’t designed with usability as the foremost concern. But ED doctors need an intuitive EHR that will minimize the opening of windows and number of clicks needed to complete tasks, allowing doctors to focus less energy on inputting data and more on improving patient outcomes.
Important charting tasks and applications should be kept on one screen because clicking back and forth between screens complicates the clinical process and wastes valuable time, a luxury ER doctors simply don’t have.
Features like drag-and-drop can drastically increase charting speed and reduce the amount of manual typing as well. Real-time patient flows allow users to track patients as they progress through the emergency room. This organizes every patient into one, easy to track workflow that all of your staff can access.
In order to help physicians safely treat everyone who comes through the door, EHRs have to eliminate the redundant and extraneous steps in completing everyday tasks.
System Speed
ER physicians also need a system that works just as fast as they do. Their EHR software has to have a fast operating speed if it’s going to work for urgent care physicians.
Cloud-based systems come into play in this regard. EHRs that run on the cloud takes the hassle out of server and mainframe responsiveness. These kinds of issues are handled by the vendor offsite, so there’s no need to worry about having an extensive IT department on-call to fix problems that arise.
Above all the EHR needs to have all of the tools and workflows needed to expedite patient care, simplify documentation, track patient status, and ultimately enhance the delivery of emergency medicine.
Do you know what you need when setting up a new medical practice?
