The value of integrated patient records: Three physician perspectives
In order to provide quality care amid personnel shortages and high patient demand, physicians must have actionable information at their fingertips exactly when it is needed. During a July 12 webinar, three physician experts — Dr. Michelle Flemmings, Medical Director of Informatics at Cerner CommunityWorks; Dr. Andrew Horine, Chief Medical Information Officer at Carroll County Memorial Hospital; and Dr. Jeffrey Held, Chief Medical Information Officer at Sturdy Memorial Hospital — discussed how EMR integration makes this possible by elevating patient safety, workflow efficiency and organizational resilience.
1 Patients win the EMR race
“In the EMR race, the patient is the winner — because of integration,” Dr. Held said. Whether it’s piecing together the medical journey of an incapacitated patient, or having the knowledge of past medications administered when making urgent treatment decisions, EMR integration empowers clinicians to improve the quality of patient care. Readily accessible and actionable information enables health systems and hospitals to decrease the risk of medical errors and “near-misses.”
2 Clinicians can focus on patients
With the benefit of EMR integration, clinicians can spend less time tracking down information and more time doing what they do best: providing quality care. Having integrated patient records at your fingertips is like having your best resident and medical student at your side with exactly the information you need, right when you need it, according to Dr. Flemmings. In this way, EMR integration significantly improves workflow efficiencies — a critical advantage as staffing shortages persist.
3 Time is money
Without EMR integration, clinicians face frustrating barriers even within their own networks. For instance, the records of a patient who was just seen in the ER might not be available to the family medicine doctor in the same health system who treats the patient afterward. “Think of all the hours spent trying to get that information,” Dr. Horine said. But when you eliminate the need to hunt down records, “all that is rolling into cost savings.” Reducing administrative burden can not only help mitigate turnover and all the expenses associated with it, but also ultimately result in a better patient experience.
4 Integration is vital in a crisis
During the pandemic, when clinicians and specialists suddenly found themselves conducting many appointments virtually, it was critical that they had the ability to view the entirety of a patient’s care history. Access to this information enabled clinicians to give confident recommendations and high-quality treatment even in a chaotic time. Additionally, EMR integration reduced administrative burden for staff who were already over-worked. “There’s no way we could have accomplished what we did during the pandemic without an integrated record,” said Dr. Horine. “It was a survival mode thing for us.”
5 An integrated future
When everybody has access to the same system, it allows care teams to easily share documents, notes and comments with each other in real time. Often, Dr. Held said, that fits better into workflows than a phone call would and elevates care coordination in a new way. Having both telehealth software and messaging integrated in the EMR is key, but Dr. Held also believes there is even more potential for greater data sharing in the future.