The main changes resulting from Memorial Healthcare System’s implementation of an electronic health record (EHR) system include improved efficiency and coordination of care through data sharing and reduced paperwork. EHRs allow providers to securely share patient data, avoiding duplication of testing and procedures. It lets many clinicians access health data in real-time on a single platform, facilitating care coordination. EHRs automate and streamline administrative operations, including order entry and paperwork, improving clinical and back-office workflows. Manual paper handling and document pulls are eliminated by digitizing patient data into an integrated, accessible EHR system. Providers can quickly access full data to inform care decisions by electronically consolidating test results, specialized reports, pictures, and other materials.
A few use cases demonstrate how the EHR improves safety, accuracy, and care coordination. Advanced EHR capabilities like computerized provider order entry (CPOE) are used to prescribe and route high-risk drugs to the pharmacy electronically. Before administering a patient’s medication, nurses check the eMAR (electronic medication administration record) on bedside WOWs to ensure accuracy and prevent errors caused by illegible handwriting or unclear paper orders. To seal the loop, barcoded scanning of pharmaceuticals and patients confirms the five rights of medication delivery at the point of treatment.
Lab tests, medical imaging exams, specialist treatments, and other diagnostics can be ordered electronically through the EHR and added to the patient’s chart. Ancillary departments can queue and process diagnostic orders faster than with manual faxing or in-person deliveries using computerized order input and paper test requisition automation. These diagnostic techniques immediately transfer results and medical images from department systems to the associated EHR, attaching directly to the patient’s chart without paper report tracking or manual scanning delays. Instead of checking for paper findings, notifications notify the ordering provider about fresh results suitable for evaluation. This decreases care decision delays that can harm outcomes when clinicians do not acquire key test findings quickly (ONC | Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, 2023).
A well-integrated EHR system allows receiving providers to electronically route referral orders to specialists and access patient data like history, recent vitals and labs, reason for referral, and other relevant documentation. After the specialized appointment or procedure, the consult report or hospital discharge summary will automatically return to the primary care provider’s EHR inbox, closing the referral loop. This improves care coordination by connecting all clinicians to critical patient information rather than having to piece together a record from scattered paper. An integrated EHR referral process links general doctors to specialists and vice versa, promoting data interchange for informed care decisions across a patient’s care continuum (ONC | Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, 2023).
Patient safety, care coordination, and operational efficiency improve with EHR improvements. By providing access to a digitized central patient data repository with embedded clinical decision support, an EHR can reduce costly and hazardous prescription errors and adverse medication events, a major source of preventable harm in healthcare (Radley et al., 2013). Data sharing lets remote practitioners securely access and update patient health records, increasing care coordination. Electronic health records eliminate paperwork that can complicate treatment plans and prescription changes. Research shows EHRs cut chart pulls and file room management costs. EHRs reduce clinicians’ manual recording and paper handling, which traditionally needed medical records staff (Wang et al., 2003).
A comprehensive, interoperable EHR system improves healthcare quality, safety, cost, and delivery. Memorial Healthcare System’s transition from basic EHR documentation to advanced data exchange, analytics, clinical decision support, patient engagement, and population health tools to improve care coordination, health outcomes, patient satisfaction, and system efficiency should create new opportunities. Memorial’s connected health future relies on full EHR integration, allowing telemedicine, mobile health apps, clinical analytics, and artificial intelligence to transform care into personalized, evidence-based practices tailored to each patient’s unique health needs and goals on their lifelong care journey.
References
ONC | Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. (2023, October). Healthit.gov. https://www.healthit.gov/
Radley, D. C., Wasserman, M. R., Olsho, L. E., Shoemaker, S. J., Spranca, M. D., & Bradshaw, B. (2013). Hospital medication errors are reduced due to the adoption of computerized provider order entry systems. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 20(3), 470–476.
Wang, S. J., Middleton, B., Prosser, L. A., Bardon, C. G., Spurr, C. D., Carchidi, P. J., … & Bates, D. W. (2003). A cost-benefit analysis of electronic medical records in primary care. The American journal of medicine, 114(5), 397–403.
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