With all of the back-and-forth debates, delays and general confusion over initiatives like Meaningful Use and ICD-10, it can be all too easy to forget just why exactly the healthcare industry is racing toward more widespread EHRs in the first place. But the value of properly implemented and optimized health records among small practices and large hospitals alike speaks for itself: Improved patient care experiences, more accurate diagnoses and medical histories, easily shared and accessed information, even lower care costs. The need for a health record system that can account for all of these factors is becoming increasingly more important as the Baby Boomer generation grows older, sending more Americans into their elderly years, which, for many of them, will mean necessary long-term care services.

The senior care sector of the healthcare industry will only be taking in more and more patients in the years ahead, making the adoption of effective EHR software not only an advantage, but a necessity. As EHR Intelligence notes, here are just a few of the benefits that an optimized EHR system can bring to the table for improving long-term senior care experiences:

• Patient-centric care: The best chiropractic EHR software doesn't just improve a practice's logistical needs, but helps to put the patient first and deliver a more rewarding experience for them. Senior care centers can especially benefit from this kind of system by using EHRs to track patients' medical information and ensure that diagnoses are made with the most relevant and up-to-date information available.
• Workflow mobility and total connectivity: The advent of mobile and cloud computing means that doctors and practitioners have an easier time of not only accessing patient information, but communicating with one another for either answering questions or disseminating more pertinent data. For example, if a nurse is having trouble assessing a certain patient and requires a doctor's help, sending a quick (and secure) text message to the physician in question allows for more expedient answers that also: a) don't rely on the doctor sitting at a computer, and b) remove any of the human errors associated with paper records. 

"As the healthcare industry evolves, there will be a greater need for interoperability which will enable providers to make the best decisions for the resident and/or patient to support transitions of care across the care continuum," EHR Intelligence writes. "Long-term care providers must become better integrated, better connected and more streamlined with their partners in care."

Regardless of which field you practice in, implementing and utilizing an integrated chiropractic EHR system helps to both streamline your office's recordkeeping needs while creating more efficient results for patients.

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Between industry buzz topics like Meaningful Use and ICD-10, it can be easy to get lost in the shuffle of these sometimes abstract concepts and lose focus on just how valuable chiropractic EHR software can be for a physician, clinic, hospital and especially patient. By shifting medical records into a digital space, EHR systems not only help streamline clinical recordkeeping duties, but allow for more accurate diagnoses, better cross-sharing of information between practices and, ultimately, increasingly satisfied patients who reap the benefits of improved care experiences.

While it's important to ensure your practice will be ready in time to comply with ICD-10, Meaningful Use Stage 2 and other critical coding upgrades, it's also reassuring to be reminded of the patient value that EHR provides in the first place. A new story out of New York City attests to this fact, highlighting how EHR use has led to an enormous jump in patient HIV tests.

EHR Intelligence reports that using digital medical records in conjunction with HIV screenings in urban NYC neighborhoods resulted in a staggering increase of HIV patient tests, from 8 percent to 56 percent, over just three years. Because of EHR use, over 120 patients newly diagnosed with HIV have now been able to be referred to the proper care.

The source points to similar success in New Orleans, where EHR systems more than doubled HIV testing rates for patients. EHR prompts clinic staff members to perform HIV screenings, which has helped identify over 90 percent of patients in the area who were positive for the disease but hadn't yet been receiving care. 

These are heartening reminders of the real value of EHR software: with minimal interruption to overall workflow, chiropractic EHR can help improve a physician's ability to diagnose and treat for their patients.

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Last week, we shared with you a new report that found the number of healthcare providers reporting Meaningful Use Stage 2 attestation jumped significantly last month, with about twice as many medical professionals and eight times as many hospitals hitting that EHR benchmark. But as good as those numbers may be, the unfortunate fact is that much of the industry is still struggling with trying to implement chiropractic EHR that brings their recordkeeping standards up to par.

A new study published in Health Affairs found that one of the major challenges facing industry-wide EHR adoption is the implementation gaps emerging between physicians. Compiling EHR data from 2009 to 2013, the study determined that as of last year, 78 percent of office-based physicians had incorporated EHR software into their recordkeeping, 48 percent of which met basic EHR system requirements. While this may look like a positive result at first glance, the problem emerged when comparing practices with at least 11 physicians in their employ to solo practitioners: 66 percent of the former had adopted EHR software, while only 37 percent of the latter had done the same.

The research also found that just 14 percent of physicians were taking advantage of the information-sharing capabilities of EHR software by dispersing relevant health data to other providers. This includes patients as well, with only 30 percent of physicians sending their patients secured messages and 24 percent providing patients with online access to their health records — indicating that between that two-thirds and three-quarters of patients were not seeing the benefit of their doctor's EHR system at all.

When bringing your practice further into the 21st century, it's imperative to invest in only the best chiropractic EHR software, to both streamline recordkeeping duties and improve patient care experiences.

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For clinics, hospitals and other healthcare providers, the advantages of adopting chiropractic EHR and digital recordkeeping are clear: They help to streamline administrative duties, lend themselves to more accurate diagnoses and even reduce patient care costs. In other words, they're a win-win for both practices and their patients. Unfortunately, it's the latter half of that equation that isn't quite getting the message, according to InformationWeek's Mansur Hasib.

Writing for the business tech news site, Hasib points out a disconcerting and potentially troublesome trend he has noticed lately: a public fear of EHRs, rooted in misinformation and misconceptions about what exactly electronic recordkeeping entails and why, contrary to popular opinion, they are actually safer and more secure alternatives to paper health records.

Advantages of EHR over Paper:

• EHRs can be encrypted or scrambled to keep away prying eyes. Paper documents, naturally, are completely visible to anyone with eyes.
• Practices are "obligated by law to adequately protect [patients'] information or face severe fines and penalties," writes Hasib. Naturally, this is easier done with EHRs, which can be monitored and tracked more clearly than their paper counterparts.
• Providers can create back-ups, stored in separate locations, of digital records in the event of theft, fire or water damage. Paper records on the other hand are limited in how they're copied and where they're stored.
• Some situations may require multiple physicians to consult a patient's records for the sake of making a thorough diagnosis, which is more difficult to do with paper records that aren't readily available to all.
• The infamous doctor's handwriting can make deciphering paper records difficult, especially in time-sensitive situations. Digital records, on the other hand, can be clearly read and understood by anyone.
• When an EHR is accessed, the system logs exactly who viewed that record, when, for how long and if they were even allowed to do so in the first place. None of that information exists for paper recordkeeping — who sees what, for how long and whether they even had authorization are all unknowns because there's no way to track that data.

Getting the word out about the many benefits of chiropractic EMR — not just in their own right, but especially when compared to paper records — is absolutely crucial to improving patient care experiences and making sure, in the event of a possible life-or-death scenario, that the right choice is made.

"Patients' lives [can be] saved because complete and accurate information was electronically available simultaneously to multiple specialists residing in various states, so they could agree on the least risky and most appropriate [course of action]" Hasib writes. "This enabled the right decision to be made the first time. A wrong decision would have resulted in the death of the patient."

Investing in the best chiropractic EHR software can help a practice achieve this improved level of patient care and accuracy, all without negatively affecting day-to-day workflow.

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The constantly shifting timelines for Meaningful Use and ICD-10 can make for an elaborate and confusing numbers game — figuring out how to adhere to new EHR regulations, when to adopt them and then ultimately pushing them back in the event of a new delay. But this can also end up distracting the healthcare industry from the true point of this widespread and up-to-date EHR implementation: To improve patient care. While many clinics and office-based physicians have adopted EHR use, not all of them have, to the detriment of the patient. Now a new poll has backed up this assertion, with a vast majority of patients claiming that they expect EHR use from their doctors and hospitals.

According to iHealthBeat, an industry news source, a survey of nearly 3,700 patients nationwide found that 83 percent of respondents "expect hospitals to use EHR systems," with only a mere 8 percent stating the opposite. These results stayed largely consistent with different age groups too, with agreement on this EHR expectation being found among:

• Over 80 percent of patients between ages 30 and 44
• 80 percent in the 45 to 65 range
• 79 percent between 18 and 29 years old.

These numbers make it pretty clear that, regardless of age or location, an overwhelming number of American patients expect their medical care to include the appropriate EHR systems. And why shouldn't they? It's 2014, and for clinics and practices to be able to deliver the best possible medical care, EHR adoption is essential.

Investing in chiropractic EHR can greatly improve a clinic's ability to not only diagnose and treat patients, but later recall information as accurately as possible. Investing in the best chiropractic EHR software can bring medical recordkeeping into the 21st century without impeding day-to-day workflow.

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Our entire world has been altered by an increased dependency on technology. Whether it is being able to look up any piece of information at the touch of a button or being more connected to friends through social media, the everybody feels interconnected in new and exciting ways each day. While the healthcare industry has received a lot of attention over the last few years, especially when the Affordable Care Act was finally rolled out, there is something that needs to be discussed — the importance of electronic health records (EHRs).

Here are a few reasons why EHRs are important in this day and age:

• Improves patient participation: If patients are able to have greater control over their medical histories and information, they can be more vocal about what courses of action they would like to take. Patients should have some level of agency when it comes to treatment.
• More accurate diagnosis: When information is available online, medical professionals have greater access to a wealth of information about both patients and their symptoms. With EHR data, doctors can come up with better and more accurate diagnoses for those they are treating.
• The information is readily available: Even if you face a medical emergency while away from your doctor, medical professionals will be able to access your medical information on the computer. That way, there will be no confusion when it comes to treating you for whatever issue it is that you are facing.

With each day, chiropractic EHR becomes a greater necessity for modern medical practices, helping to streamline and improve patient care, lending itself to more accurate and thorough diagnoses and treatment plans.

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Electronic health records (EHR) can go a long way in improving patient care and administrative recordkeeping — a fact that the majority of doctors in the United States are now not only recognizing but taking advantage of.

According to new statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the number of U.S. doctors making use of EHR more than doubled over a five-year span, from 35 percent in 2007 to 72 percent in 2012. Last year, that number shot up to nearly 80 percent, meaning that about four out of five physicians across the country are now utilizing EHRs in their practices.

"In 2013, 78 percent of physicians were using electronic health record systems," Esther Hing, a statistician from the CDC's U.S. National Center for Health Statistics, told HealthDay News. "We are reaching nearly all the doctors. [The federal government's financial] incentives have had a large part in the increased adoption of these systems."

Chiropractic EHR use in clinics has helped to improve tracking for patient data and test results, as well as aid doctors in observing patient health trends over longer periods of time. This kind of information is being used to create an overall more reliable and accurate patient care experience. As Hing notes, EHR and EMR adoption has also greatly helped with, "coordination of care, reducing medication errors and overuse of tests."

Federal guidelines set forth by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as part of its Meaningful Use initiative have helped ease a number of healthcare providers and payers into incorporating chiropractic EMR as part of their day-to-day services. Taking advantage of chiropractic documentation software and EHR can create a more patient-centric practice without causing any disruptions to the clinic's typical workflow.

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With initiatives like Meaningful Use Stage 2 and coding upgrades like ICD-10 routinely making headlines over the last several months — a fact that you can expect to see more of in the months and years ahead – there's no doubt that healthcare industry has been buzzing with electronic health record (EHR) news. But, to put it bluntly, is all of this really worth the hassle? Do clinics and hospitals really benefit that much from adopting chiropractic EHR into their recordkeeping practices?

The answer, according to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), is a resounding yes. The source reports that researchers determined that the impact that EHR has on doctors and healthcare organizations has been largely positive and even improved the ability to diagnose and treat patients. With the quantity of data collected and recorded from just routine check-ups, healthcare professionals can and do mine this information to develop accurate and overall better patient care.

"In one instance, a group of researchers looked at data from patients with sore throats and came up with a way to help determine whether people should see a doctor for a strep throat test or stay home and take aspirin," writes the WSJ. "In another, a pediatrician was able to follow a hunch to a study a connection between an eye disease and allergies in young patients with arthritis."

Chiropractic practices looking to reap similar benefits for both their clinics and their patients are encouraged to invest in new chiropractic documentation software. With the suite of tools offered by proper chiropractic EHR software, practitioners and clinicians can greatly improve their ability to diagnose and treat patients, all without disrupting their typical administrative workflow in the process.

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If all goes according to plan, the landscape of the American healthcare industry will be drastically revamped over the next 18 months. The implementation of the ICD-10 coding upgrade, coupled with the continuing adoption of electronic medical records (EMR) through Meaningful Use (currently in Stage 2), will ideally lead to a surge in efficiency and recordkeeping accuracy in many medical practices, from smaller clinics to larger hospitals.

But as exciting as these developments may be for practitioners and clinicians, it's important to remember that they are ultimately meant to service the patient and deliver an overall stronger customer service experience. While providing patients with improved and more up-to-date chiropractic EMR — and all the information that entails — can go a long way in making sure that they are better informed when they leave your office, these are far from the only ways to practice better customer service.

Lea Chatham at the medical billing software company Kareo has recently published a new "Patient-Centered Checklist" that details some of the customer-centric approaches that medical practices can take. We addressed some of these suggestions last week, but here a few more:

• An appealing website: Curb appeal can be a make-or-break factor in buying a home and the same holds true for websites as well. While you shouldn't tailor your online portfolio to focus on style over substance, creating a website that is mobile-friendly, details office hours and directions and offers complete transparency on prices and policies can help patients feel better about whom they're placing their trust in.
• Check-ins should be convenient: It can often feel like most of the time spent in a doctor's office is in the waiting room, filling out form after form. The check-in process is essential and necessary, but it can also be streamlined into something more convenient and patient-friendly. Providing check-in papers on your practice's website or offering card-on-file options for co-pay and deductible payments can help make the process go by faster and easier.
• Patient reminders: It's important to remember that patients lead busy lives too and may not always commit to memory any appointment times or dates they may have made. Use phone calls, email, letter mail and even text messages to send patients reminders of upcoming appointments or follow-ups.
• Social media engagement: Some companies may resist the call to make use of social media and may even dismiss it as a fad. But like it or not, social media is here to stay, so why not take advantage of it? If your patients live on platforms like Facebook and Twitter, then what better way to reach them? Social media can make for a quick and effective way of communicating wellness recommendations, service updates and any changes in practice policy.
• Stay on top of reviews: In a world where referral sites like Yelp can determine whether or not a potential patient even visits your practice in the first place, it's important to stay apprised of what others are saying about the service you provide. Make sure that any information you post online is up-to-date, respond to positive and negative reviews alike and always communicate any changes that have been made or past issues that have been resolved. 

Investing into chiropractic documentation software can also create a more patient-centric experience while bringing your practice further into the 21st century. The best chiropractic EMR software can help you make the switch to a more digital approach without disrupting your typical administrative duties in the process.

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It's a simple fact of life that people need doctors. Whether they have a pressing concern or issue that needs immediate attention, or they're simply looking to alleviate any medical fears by having regular check-ups, there will always be patients who need to pay their doctor a visit. What can change, though, is where they go. Just as there are plenty of patients around, there are also plenty of clinics for them to choose from. If you want to ensure that your patients have a pleasant, helpful experience at your practice and return to see you each time — establishing a healthy rapport between patient and practitioner — it's crucial to put together patient-first customer service.

Lea Chatham, of the medical billing and EHR software company Kareo, has recently published The Patient-Centered Checklist to help small practices and clinics give their patients the best possible time during their visit. Here are just some of the recommendations that Chatham notes should be incorporated into the in-office experience:

• Make use of EHR documentation: Ensuring that your practice's chiropractic EHR is up-to-date not only helps your own administrative recordkeeping, but can also supply the patient with swift results — from preventative care recommendations to printed educational materials and visitation summaries.
• Keep scheduling and appointments convenient: Ultimately, it's your patient who has to take time out of their day to visit you, so it's essential to set up appointments as conveniently around their schedules as possible. Accommodating walk-ins and same-day visits, and making use of online appointment services like ZocDoc, can help make scheduling easier for patients.

Practices should invest in the best chiropractic EMR software so that they can provide patients with immediate and up-to-date information while also streamlining their own recordkeeping duties. 

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