Maintaining a patient's medical history on paper can be tedious and labor intensive for healthcare professionals, and with today's consumers wanting quick access to their health data and information without having to physically go to their physicians office, digital solutions are a necessity.
Physician burnout costs the US $5 billion each year and triples the likelihood of expensive medical errors – that's why electronic health records (EHRs) have become a staple in the rapidly transforming space.
What is an Electronic Health Record?
An electronic health record (EHR) is an electronic collection of a patient's medical history – including diagnoses, medications, treatment plans, allergies, laboratory and test results. And EHRs work beyond just recording a patient's health data.
EHRs allow patients' health information to be managed in a digital formatand their data can be shared with other providers across multiple organizations. They grant access to evidence-based tools that providers can use to make sound decisions and recommendations about a patient's care.
EHR vs EMR
While some people may use the terms Electronic Health Record (EHR) and Electronic Medical Record (EMR) interchangeably, they have stark differences that are important to note.
EMRs are sometimes referred to as the first iteration of EHRs – they are quite literally the digital version of a patient's paper chart. EMRs focus on a patient's various diagnoses and treatments and can be used to help track data over time.
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EHRs can do everything EMRs can do, and more. Designed to go beyond the information stored and entered by the original health organization, they cover a much wider scope of documentation and analysis of a patient's health and medical history. They can even assist with healthcare management functions, such as billing and scheduling.
Benefits of EHR Systems
EHR systems can improve two major areas in the healthcare industry: physician productivity and patient satisfaction.
Physician productivity
EHR implementation has the ability to speed up physician diagnoses and digitize administrative tasks, which are associated with 30% of healthcare costs. Other ways EHRs can enhance physician productivity include:
- Fewer file pulls
- Reduced transcription costs
- 24/7 access to patient information
- Improved billing and scheduling
Patient Satisfaction
Today's patients want to have a firmer grasp on monitoring and controlling their own health data and medical records. EHRs give them the ability to quickly obtain their data and see which areas of their health history require improvement. Additionally, EHRs provide patients with:
- 24/7 access to their records
- Easier chronic disease management
- Reduced turn-around time for messages to a physician
- Improved delivery of education materials
EHR Implementation Strategies & Challenges
While EHRs have the potential to decrease cost, increase productivity, and enhance patient satisfaction, EHR implementation is a long and complicated process. Some of the major hurdles EHRs face include interoperability and data privacy.
Interoperability – the ability of different software systems to share and exchange data – is one of the biggest challenges faced by the entire healthcare industry. And since one of the key perks to using EHRs is the ability to share patients' medical history across a variety of health organizations, accurate interoperability of data is critical. However, just 37% of US hospital leaders think their organization is "very" or "extremely" successful at sharing medical data with other health systems, according to Business Insider Intelligence's Digital Health Ecosystem report.
Along with Interoperability, data security and consumer privacy pose another obstacle when it comes to EHR implementation. Patients and physicians want to ensure that their data is being protected – a challenging feat when faced with potential cyber attacks and security breaches.
Employee training is also important to a successful EHR implementation strategy. Hospitals and healthcare companies should form a strong, focused EHR team to think about what software the organization will need, how they'll migrate paper documents to a digitized format, and what strategies will be put in place if their EHR program goes down.
Clinicians should not be trained on one specific function of an EHR, but on the entire system so that they can best optimize what the digital tool can offer both themselves and patients. It's important for employees to be trained in the entire EHR module, otherwise they risk reverting back to traditional methods.
Government EHR Incentive Program & Mandates
To help tackle the various challenges discussed above, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) launched the Promoting Interoperability Programs designed to assist healthcare professionals and organizations to meaningfully use EHR technology.
The program initially launched in 2011 and evolved through three stages:
- Stage 1: set the foundational requirements for recording patient health data electronically
- Stage 2: CMS encouraged healthcare professionals to use EHRs to exchange patients' health data and emphasized the importance of quality improvement and meaningful use
- Stage 3: Consolidates and combines stage 1 and 2, providing physicians with the current requirements for the Promoting Interoperability Programs. Many points were carried over from stage 2, emphasizing the importance of quality of care and working to improve patients' health outcomes.
Digital Health Trends & Future of EHR
The global Electronic Health Records Market size was valued at $20.55 billion in 2016 and is expected to reach $33.41 billion by 2025. And big tech firms are largely contributing to this growth as they continue to make their way into the digital health market.
Google parent Alphabet is leveraging its cloud platform to solve healthcare technology issues associated with EHR interoperability, and in turn score fruitful health system partnerships. In 2018 Google launched Google Cloud for Healthcare with the aim of helping clinicians collect and access patients' health data.
The Cloud Healthcare API enables easy exchange between healthcare applications while meeting industry-specific privacy and security requirements to propel EHRs to become meaningful decision support tools.
In 2019 Apple also decided to tap into the EHR opportunity - the tech company signed a deal to integrate Allscripts' EHR data into its Apple Health Records platform. And since Allscripts is the fifth largest EHR vendor in the US according to Business Insider Intelligence, this tie-up will likely help Apple increase its hospital penetration.
Amazon is making its way into the EHR market as well. Amazon Web Services (AWS) collects data from sources like EHRs to aid healthcare providers in their decision making process and identify and predict potential risks to patients. According to research from Business Insider Intelligence, 62% of healthcare organizations view a potential move by Amazon as positive for the medical industry.
Finally, many big tech players in transportation and patient convenience will support the EHR market moving forward. Uber began taking advantage of the untapped opportunity with nonemergency medical transport by allowing provider organizations using Cerner EHRs to request Uber rides for their patients.
Want to learn more?
Amid social distancing restrictions and the worry associated with entering a healthcare facility for nonemergencies, digital health is more important now than ever before. Personalization and convenience is becoming a staple for almost every organization, and to accomplish this in the healthcare industry, digital technology is a must-have.
Interested in learning more? Insider Intelligence publishes thousands of research reports, charts, and forecasts on the Digital Health industry. You can learn more about becoming a client here.
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