“Patient safety” is more than a buzz phrase. It is a serious issue that affects patients and clinicians nationwide. The increased utilization of EHR is good news, as there are many ways that EHR can mitigate safety issues. Following are five examples of how EHR works in the trenches to avert errors and increase the quality of care:

• Human error: People inevitably make mistakes. For example, a provider may write down the wrong medication or dose on a prescription pad. The only input to the pharmacist is this erroneous information. However, with an EHR, a diagnosis can be automatically printed on prescriptions. If the medication does not match the diagnosis, the pharmacist can verify the prescription with the provider.

• Delayed care: Providers frequently lack all of the information they need to make a medical judgment. Often this is because the triage department did not collect it from the patient. The EHR can help. By using standardized forms that include all the questions related to a symptom, triage staff can standardize care across the practice. Delays caused by insufficient information are eliminated.

• Interaction checking: As the number of medications and herbal remedies increase, checking for interactions becomes a complex, time-consuming step. The EHR can perform this check in seconds, decreasing delays and increasing safety.

• Best practice look-up: As new guidelines are recommended based on the latest medical evidence, alerts can be built into the EHR that pop up if the care is not to the best-practice standard. In this era of Pay-for-Performance, alerts not only keep patients safer, they can help with the practice’s bottom line.

• Health Maintenance Reminders: With an EHR, clinical staff is no longer tasked with digging through patient records to determine when each patient gets a reminder for procedures such as pap smears, mammograms or PSAs. Reminders are automated and on time, which can aid in early diagnosis.

These are just a few of the ways an EHR enhances patient safety and helps practices deliver a higher quality of care. If you are thinking of ways to improve quality and performance, call us. Our consultants are experts in optimizing health care operations, leading to better outcomes and higher patient and clinician satisfaction.

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