People routinely share things with their healthcare providers that they wouldn’t dare discuss with anybody else. After all, physicians do require more personal information than virtually any other service provider, so it comes with the territory. Thanks to super advanced technology being widely available, providers in the healthcare industry make full use of storing patients’ info with computers. Here are a few benefits of electronic health records that you might not have thought of-
Government Compliance Is Super Important
The U.S. federal government mandates HIPAA, or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, of 1996. HIPAA outlines very strict guidelines regarding the storage of patient information that healthcare providers must adhere to. Although HIPAA doesn’t require healthcare providers to electronically store patient information, using programs and software to store electronic health records are usually built in with measures to improve HIPAA compliance. As such, one of the keystone benefits of EHR is staying out of trouble with government agencies.
Providers Can Readily Share Info
Without electronic health records, healthcare providers struggle to readily access patients’ medical information. In emergency situations, this can result in patients not getting appropriate treatment or attention when they need it most. Herein lies one of the many big-time benefits of EHR, which is helping more people make it through life-or-death situations.
Medical Research Controls Overall Health Advancement
Without medical research, the state of human health wouldn’t advance anywhere nearly as quickly as it currently does. As you know, patient data is necessary to conduct medical research. With electronic health records, researchers have access to tons of patients’ information that’s necessary to carry out whatever studies they’re tasked with publishing.
Why EHR Really Matters
Electronic health records help providers, patients, and researchers alike. In the modern medical climate, there’s every reason to use electronic health records and virtually zero reasons not to.