Efficient Patient Care, That’s What It’s All About

Efficient Patient Care, That’s What It’s All About

Posted on behalf of Katie Jankowski, Implementation Engineer, Managed Services
I remember working at a local dentist office sorting through patient records and putting them back into the correct alphabetical order on shelves in a back room. I remember printing off the next day’s appointments and pulling each patients’ giant manila folder in anticipation for their arrival. I remember faxing 37 pages of information to another dentist because the patient switched due to insurance limitations.
I remember thinking this was so much work and it was 2010. Why was I allocating this much time doing all these things? There must have been a better, more efficient way.
It’s enlightening to think about how healthcare technology has transformed. It’s impressive to see how many systems can seamlessly interact with each other and how much data is accessible to these systems.
Sorting through patient records is a pastime and giant manila folders are obsolete since records are now available within electronic health record (EHR) systems. These 37 pages of information don’t need to be faxed because they can be sent electronically to another system, quickly. Forget about waiting to be mailed your test results or waiting for a phone call on your landline to hear your results. We can now log into a patient portal and view everything there, even send a message to our physician asking if he or she can refill our prescription.
How many times have we called to make an appointment not realizing it was lunch time at our physician’s office? We can now electronically request an appointment.
Medical information is at our fingertips now; the access limitation is gone.
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