Medical Management One Blog

The new year brings a list of 12 healthcare buzzwords that highlight changes organizations are having to make to improve both efficiency and the patient’s experience…Full Story

The process of implementing electronic medical records involves a lot of moving parts. The following are five things every hospital should do for physicians when implementing electronic medical records…  Full Story

        Pharmacists may soon be working alongside primary care physicians. Two studies indicate that adding pharmacists to the primary care team for joint care management increases medical benefits. The presence of a pharmacist tended to improve patients’ adherence to medications…  Full Story

If your EHR software runs on a web server, your providers may access the system via the web from home, hospital, or other location to make important medical decisions based on up-to-date health records.  Utilize the https protocol, a secure version of http which is HIPPA compliant.  Using the https protocol ensures a secure means for transferring data over the web via encryption with a digital certificate.  A digital certificate proves your server’s identity online and ensures, through encryption, that any data submitted to your website is unreadable if intercepted by an unauthorized user.  This is the same technology used by other secure sites frequently visited on the web, such as online banking.

For site to site data transmissions (your practice to a diagnostic center, your practice to a hospital), set up a virtual private network, or VPN.  A VPN connects two locations and uses the internet for data transmission, but encrypts the connection forming the virtual network.  Typically, when your clinicians access hospital records, they log on to a secure hospital website (https) which encrypts the session and protects the data that is being transferred or viewed.

When implementing an EHR system in your clinic, it is important to win the support of the providers and other clinical staff who will be using it in everyday interactions with your community of patients.  Demonstrate that the utilization of electronic records will improve the accuracy of your record-keeping, improve the quality of your care, and enhance every one’s ease of access to patient health information.  
 
Train clinicians to use certain functionalities in the software to bolster accuracy.  In some EHR systems, physicians are able to double check drug interactions and import pertinent information throughout a patient’s entire record with one simple step.  Key in to the unique capabilities of your EHR system and make these functions part of your clinical protocol in order to minimize overlooked, but important errors.  Additionally, emphasize that the ability to access reportable digital information on patients’ disease states and treatment therapies – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, from home, the hospital, or a nursing home — allows for high-quality continuity of care.

When selecting hardware for clinicians to use to access electronic health records, issues of security, mobility and flexibility are important.  Many physicians find that a tablet PC best addresses these issues.

First, a provider is able to take the tablet when he or she leaves an exam room so that patients may not gain access to the network in the provider’s absence.  Additionally, the use of a tablet allows continuity of one log-in session as opposed to the requirement of multiple log-in sessions created by the use of several hardwired PC workstations throughout the office.

Much like a paper chart, a tablet PC allows for greater mobility in the clinic: A provider has access to nurses, medical assistants, and other clinicians while holding the tablet or moving it from docking station to docking station.  Multiple hardwired PC workstations do not provide the same mobility and flexibility.

New technology in the health care industry is growing beyond medical record maintenance.  The latest advances serve patients’ and providers’ interests in prevention and compliance:

PDAs have merged with cellphones to play host to an array of clinical decision support applications, including those that assist providers with prescription medication and diagnostic issues.

Technology in the home health sector is predicted to boom in less than ten years, as remote health monitoring becomes a mainstay for the chronically ill or recently hospitalized.  Variations on telehealth monitoring are hitting the market and are expected to revolutionize the care of patients with diabetes, renal failure, congestive heart failure, and chronic lung disease.  Patients are responsible for checking their vitals, which are then wirelessly communicated to the provider.  This sort of technology allows patients to avoid last-minute emergency room visits and subsequent hospitalizations.

Search engines are improving the quality of their medical query results and several companies, including Google and Microsoft, are teaming with large clinics to produce platforms for secure storage and exchange of health care information.  Platforms such as these would provide patients space to aggregate their health history, including test results, medication lists, and appointment reminders.