FAQ
What is an electronic health record (EHR) system?
An electronic health record (EHR) system is a software application that allows physicians to record patient medical information in a digital format.
What does an electronic health record (EHR) system do?
EHRs perform multiple functions beyond recording a patient's medical history. EHRs can automate many steps in the workflow of a primary care practice including:
- Patient check-in and appointment scheduling
- Patient health information collection
- Visit and procedure coding
- Claims submission
EHRs provide clinical tools such as: laboratory and radiology ordering and results viewing, electronic prescribing (eRx), and clinical decision support systems, which help guide adherence to clinical guidelines and provide reminders for preventive care.
Additional system tools allow practitioners to:
- Report events of clinical or public health significance quickly;
- Share information with other health systems (e.g., transmit patient information to care facilities in different locations);
- Secure remote access for providers and potentially for patients to retrieve health information
(e.g., check patient information securely from outside the office).
NYC REACH can help you decide which of these functions will benefit your practice.
Why do practices need an EHR system?
Adopting these new systems and integrating them into practice workflows can improve patient safety and efficiency of care, reduce duplicative diagnostic testing, and enhance quality of care and health promotion. The adoption of EHRs can significantly improve the coordination of care within and across health systems. Recent advances in the creation of standards for electronic transfer of information allow physician offices, laboratories, radiology practices, and hospitals to securely access and transfer patient information.
How can an EHR help improve patient safety?
One of the main reasons that there is such national momentum toward EHRs is the increasing evidence that they improve patient safety. The majority of errors can be attributed to illegible or incorrectly interpreted handwritten orders, inadequate or incomplete information about the patient, or knowledge gaps about appropriate treatments or standards of care.
The most important contribution that EHR makes to patient safety is computerized provider order entry (CPOE). By entering orders, especially medication orders, directly into the system, errors caused by illegibility or incorrect copying can be virtually eliminated. The system allows automated checks for allergies and drug-drug interactions, and includes a comment field that providers can use to clarify new or changing medication orders.
By making clinical decision support available at the point of care, EHR can improve compliance with guidelines and standards of care. EHR can provide patient-and disease-specific reminders, notifications about critical results, and access to web-based resources such as the Centers for Disease Control, ePocrates, and UpToDate Online.
What is Pay-For-Performance?
The overall goal of a Pay-For-Performance (P4P) program is to improve quality of care through public recognition and financial reward. Third-party payments from the public and private sources are provided to clinicians who meet set standards of care. EHRs can efficiently track P4P quality indicators so that providers are able to participate in P4P programs and maximize P4P revenue through quality improvements.
To learn more about Meaningful Use, please visit: www.nycreach.org/use.