Digitization was one of the first steps that technological innovation took in its climb to greatness. From the banking sector to legal records and education—everything within the neck of the woods is now digitized. Some projects are more stringent than the others and one such industry that got people running head over heels when they considered the possibility of digitizing it was healthcare.
The problem with the healthcare industry is not a shortsighted one. Think about it—you make an appointment at the doctor, and the attendant notes it down in the register. You visit the doctor and s/he prescribes you the meds on the prescription pad. Your file of records is stored in a large room full of zillion other files. It’s all happening on paper.
Let’s forget the Go-Green initiative for a second and let’s talk with outstanding practicality. You’ve got this room full of files with classified information of thousands of patients (which are bound by the doctor-patient privilege), and they’re just sitting there. These files can get lost, stained, torn, and even embezzled in due course of time. That’s not the best way to treat information worth patients’ integrity and confidentiality, is it?
For this very reason, the digitization of healthcare sector was critical. And when scientists looked over the fundamental nature of the task in hand, they figured that it’s incredibly crucial to act on it. And hence, scientific innovation and technologies at hand gave birth to Electronic Health Records (EHR) and Electronic Medical Records (EMR).
Throughout the globe, governments and philanthropists invested billions of dollars in setting up laboratories and research centers to craft these extremely complicated pieces of tech. From putting the most brilliant of minds to work on software to procuring pricey elements for the hardware, the medical industry was all set to go for the change it didn’t just need but equally deserved.
Hence, EHRs and EMRs were born, and they were put to use nearly everywhere. What could be better than two miraculous inventions which can be used to store priceless bits of information and detailed data? But since EHRs and EMRs often come out of one’s tongue under the same breath, there’s a lot of confusion on whether EHRs and EMRs are as different as scissors and scalpels, or they can be used interchangeably.
There’s quite a profound difference between EHRs and EMRs and to understand it, we have to delve into the intricacies. After all, the “health” in Electronic Health Records and “medical” in Electronic Medical Records makes a world of difference in two pieces of machinery. With the help of EHR & EMR Consultants True North ITG, let’s understand EHRs and EMRs one by one to figure out the difference. Just a head’s up—it’s not potato-potato.
Electronic Medical Records
Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) are bits and pieces of medical information stored on a computer. These include everything—from the medical history of patients to their records of diagnosis and treatments by the given physicians, dentists, specialists, nurse practitioners, surgeons, or clinics. Electronic Medical Records have a certain number of advantages of heaps of paperwork as well, and data tracking and categorization are more straightforward than ever.
As all of it is online, doctors and surgeons can easily track patient information through various filters. Healthcare is more ‘up to date’ as the clinic gets proper notifications of timely reminders of patient examinations, follow up, and preventive checkups.
All in all, quality of patient care is well improved than before, for when data is online, and on a screen, it’s simpler to examine it with a vast matrix of variables available to compare. All of this wouldn’t be practically possible we are unable to digitize the paperwork in the healthcare industry. Thanks to EMRs, it’s become a reality.
Electronic Health Records
Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are much more secure—for clinics and hospitals that value patient data more than anything else. EHRs come to the rescue against breaches of data, embezzlement of classified information, and various virtual security risks. EHRs assist in keeping your data safe and secure by maintaining virtual backups and of course—the digital data makes more sense than anything else.
In the modern age where everything is online and vulnerable to attacks from predators and hackers, EHRs are like a vault with a golden key—something that keeps sensitive data out of wrong hands. When a medical record review is on paper, it is very tough to keep them out of reach of embezzlers and let’s not forget the fact that data on paper is vulnerable to annihilation due to external factors.
Let’s look at the advantages that come along when medical professionals peruse Electronic Health Records:
As the information updated on EHRs is real-time and updated, there’s no need to pass those files around from one corner of the office to the other.
EHRs provide access to tools that the providers can capitalize on while making critical decisions.
When the information is uploaded on an EHR, it makes the complete medical history of the patient available in one single click/touch. That includes the most recent doctor’s examination to personal and classified information like allergies and ailments.
EHRs are Innovative
Yes, the concept of maintaining Electronic Health Records sounds rather lucrative. But in reality, do all the EHR workstations bring out the same efficiency and results as the others? No! That is why picking out the right EHR workstation is exceptionally crucial for medical institutions and clinics. As we talked about it earlier, the EHRs have a very vital task of being the guardian angel. You can’t just fire up an old computer, put all the classified information of thousands of patients online, and assure yourself that it’s safe.
That’s where Enovate Medical comes up—with an exclusive range of EHR technology, Enovate ensures that the designated work of EHRs is done alongside the added security through its relentless technology. This medical workstation on wheels is a miraculous launch in the EHR segment and the level of security and adaptability it offers; you’d never want to go back to where you started.
The best part about Enovate Medical’s secure range of EHRs (well, the second-best part after it’s securely encrypted UI) is that it can kiss your paper records goodbye. All the clinic has to do is lead the change to transcend into the territory of secure classified information and easy data management. And it just starts with one change to Enovate’s range of EHRs.
Let’s get back to how EHRs and EMRs differ from each other.
Electronic Medical Records v/s Electronic Health Records
If it’s put, then EHRs is a much more comprehensive than EMRs because while the latter focuses on just “medical” records, the former is dictated towards overall “health” of the patients.
Also, EHRs share data outside the purview of a single clinic, while EMRs are much more of an in-house data bank.
It’s Good if it’s Not on Paper
The bottom line is that EHRs and EMRs are designed to make the medical industry smoother and to keep it up with the changing technological paradigms. These two might as well be the first catalysts to revolutionize healthcare in times to come, and of course—save paper while they’re at it.