Health information technology is a system that facilitates the storing, sharing, and analysis of data (primarily patients records and payer related information) collected by healthcare providers on a day in and day out basis. It is widely used in hospitals, public clinics, and doctor’s private chambers to facilitate workflows and get things done with the click of a mouse.
Over the years healthcare software has helped to improve the quality of patient treatment by leaps and bounds. On the other hand, it has helped to ease out frontend and backend task to such an extent that tasks that used to take hours to complete can now be rounded off in a matter of minutes. Besides, it assists providers to save on time and effort, and manage more with less. And most importantly, it ensures the work is completed without any errors. Thus, organizations can focus more on patient treatment and follow-up. Other than that, you get faster prescriptions and reduces paperwork as well.
There are different types of healthcare information systems available in the market today. Each have their specific use and take care of either administerial aspects, payer data or patients’ medical data, amongst other things.
The ways in which healthcare IT is transforming healthcare systems is staggering to say the least. Depending on your needs and size of your practice, you can choose the type of healthcare information systems. Let’s have a broader look at the different type of healthcare information system available today.
Most Important Healthcare IT Systems
Medical Practice Management System
The medical practice management system is designed to take care of different clinical and administrative aspects of a practice. It automates and streamlines activities such as scheduling appointments, managing documents, and managing patient data. It is designed to serve all types of healthcare providers — from a large hospital to single doctor practitioner.
Some of the major benefits of using medical practice management system include:
- It enables practices to focus on the quality of patient care.
- It gives a single screen view of all healthcare data
| Did You Know –About 72% of physicians use their smartphones to access drug information. –Nearly 63% of physicians use their tablets to access medical research. –About 44% of physicians communicate with nurses and other staff from smartphones. |
Few good practice management software is eClinicalWorks.
Electronic Health Records (EHR)
Electronic health record is an information management system for hospitals used to manage a patient’s medical information end-to-end. It stores data pertaining to a patients’ medical history, laboratory reports, allergies, and more. Medical practitioners and nurses find it extremely handy because the information can be accessed instantly using any handheld devices. Doctors can use it to share data across different departments, keeping all stakeholders updated.
Benefits
- Improves workflow efficiency by eliminating paperwork and providing instant access to patients’ data.
- Makes patient care consistent and focussed as the same data is shared across all departments eliminating chances of errors.
The most common electronic health records are Care360, CureMD, etc.
E-Prescribing Software
This is a technology that helps physicians write prescriptions electronically and send them directly to the pharmacy. The technology obviates the need to create handwritten notes, which is time consuming and at times hard-to-decipher. It facilitates remote treatment and helps physicians manage their time more efficiently.
Benefits:
- Providers can send prescriptions directly to pharmacies, eliminating chances of a mix-up or misplace.
- Provides easy and quick access to a patient’s medical history as the pharmacy can preserve all the information in its database.
A commonly used e-prescribing software is DrFirst.
| Did You Know –Nearly 40% of physicians believe healthcare technologies can reduce the number of visits to doctors’ offices. –About 93% of physicians find value in having a mobile health app connected to Emergency Health. |
Remote Patient Monitoring
Remote patient monitoring systems are medical sensors that read vital body parameters and transmit the data from remote places to healthcare professionals. The data enables doctors to take immediate action to deal with serious symptoms and prevent happenings that may otherwise lead to serious issues.
Benefits
- It brings down the costs of managing chronic disease and expedited post-discharge care.
- It assists in reducing chances of hospital readmission. At the same time, it improves quality of patient care by ensuring the patient is under constant observation.
- On a larger scale it can be used to collect patient data of a region to study upcoming disease trends.
One popular remote patient monitoring system used today is Medtronic.
Master Patient Index (MPI)
This is a technology used by providers to create an index of all medical records for a patient. The index is made accessible to all departments. The biggest advantage of using this is that it connects patient records from multiple databases. It is commonly used in hospitals or large clinics where patient information is stored digitally. The stored data can be used for references by all providers who agree to share the database.
Benefits
- MPIs help in reducing duplication of patient records.
- Eliminates inaccuracy of information thereby removing chances of wrong treatment.
Patient Portal
A patient portals is a platform where patients can access their health-related data stored in HER (medical history, lab reports, and other medications) from any device. Besides, they can use this platform to schedule appointments, view bills, and even make payments online. An advanced portal can also assist patients in getting an online appointment with physicians for remote diagnosis.
Benefits
- Eliminates the need for patients to wait in long queues
- Makes it easy for patients to access all related reports with the click of a button
One widely used patient portal are MedFusion, eClinicalWorks, CureMD
Urgent Care Applications
Urgent care application is a kind of information management system used to keep record and store the information of patients who may require immediate medical attention. While it helps providers to segregate high risk patients from general patients, it also ensures serious patients skip the waiting room queue and get care instantly. Further, patients can use this application to track their medical care status and get answers to common queries about their diseases, and other informative health articles.
Benefits
It enables quick service to patients with serious conditions and enhances patient satisfaction rate.
- The apps enable providers to provide medical assistance 24/7.
- A widely used urgent care app is HealthTap.
Medical Billing Software
This is arguably the most crucial piece of software for health care management. As billing is a time-consuming and complex process, and healthcare facilities stay busy focusing on core tasks medical billing software assists them to automatically generate medical bills and handle the billing workflow end-to-end.
Additionally, patient billing software takes care of associated billing tasks such as insurance claims and verification and tracking payment, and denials. Advanced software come equipped with auto alert feature to flag late payments or remind submission of any pending bill from the provider’s end.
Some of the commonly used billing software include EpicCare, AdvancedMD. NextGen. DrChrono etc.
Conclusion:
The healthcare information system is evolving fast and is changing the way providers have been doing business. Small practices and hospitals understand the importance of adopting these systems but are deterred by the high costs and implementation process. Leveraging the services of a third-party support provider will assist them make an easy, smooth and cost-effective switch over. And that’s because BPO service providers have a deep understanding of healthcare IT and will assist you choose the best fit technology or even develop a custom-made applications for your needs, with guaranteed outcomes.
Who We Are and What Makes Us an Expert?
This article is brought to you by MedbillingExperts a specialized provider of healthcare BPO services. We have over 10 years of experience in providing a range of healthcare BPO services which includes medical billing services, coding services, revenue cycle management, claims management, etc. We also specialize in developing smart custom dashboards, rich custom-made mobile apps, and advanced automated solutions to automate healthcare delivery process for our clients.
