How to Get Complete and Accurate Data in the EHR

When health care providers have access to complete and accurate information, patients receive far better medical care. EHRs with up-to-date information and quality data can improve the ability to diagnose diseases and reduce medical errors while improving patient outcomes.

A national survey titled the National Perceptions of EHR Adoption offers important evidence:

• 94% of providers report that their EHR makes records readily available at point of care.

• 88% report that their EHR produces clinical benefits for the practice.

• 75% of providers report that their EHR allows them to deliver better patient care.

Congress has passed The 21st Century Cures Act in order to take steps toward more effective and precise treatments for a wide range of conditions. This important ruling is intended to break down the many barriers between EHRs. It sets criteria for systems to be considered interoperable, requiring:

• Secure transfer of all patient data from any/all health information technology

• Access to all patient’s available data for authorized use without special effort

• Configuration of technology so there is no information blocking

Having access to quality data in the EHR is paramount when using the data for decision making. If clinicians have to search through the media/documents tab in the EMR or they have faxes stuck in the system, staff does not have up-to-date information to use for the decision making process. This could potentially put a patient’s safety at risk and greatly delay the treatment process. For more information on the data gap in healthcare, read How to Reduce the Data Delay from 5 Days… to 1 Hour.

Extract has worked with many organizations in order to provide up-to-date results in the EHR. Instead of having valuable information trapped in scanned documents, faxed results or stuck in a media/documents tab as an attachment, Extract pulls important data from anywhere within a document and routes that data into discrete fields in the EMR for physician decision-making. Quality data provides a more structured diagnosis in a faster, more efficient manner, which will lead to better treatment resulting in happier and healthier patient’s.

Resources include HealthIT.gov and BeckersHospitalReview.com.