EMR/EHR

Electronic medical records (EMR) are a digital version of a patient’s chart that store their personal information, medical history and links to prior exams, texts and reports. The goal of these systems is to enable immediate access to the patient's data electronically, rather than needing to request paper file folders that might be stored in fragment files at numerous locations where a patient is seen or treated. EMRs (also called electronic health records, or EHR) improve clinician and health system efficiency by making all this data immediately available. This helps reduce repeat tests, repeat prescriptions and repeat imaging exams because reports, imaging or other patient data is not not immediately available. 

Microscope

Benefits of EHR may be a ways off, but physicians need to see the potential

Lloyd B. Minor, the dead of Stanford University School of Medicine, equated problems harnessing the positives of EHR with the microscope. It took 70 years for that game-changing tool to lead to scientific breakthroughs—a delay that might have to do as much with the user as the instrument itself.

July 2, 2018

GAO: Before Cerner transition, VA spent $1B a year on EHR

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is about to undergo a massive, $16 billion revamp of its electronic health record (EHR) system. A month after a $10 million deal with Cerner was finalized, the Government Accounting Office (GAO) released a report that found the VA spent $3 billion on EHR support between 2015 and 2017.

July 2, 2018

VA announces EHR oversight hearing

Representatives Phil Roe, MD, R-Tennessee, Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs (VA), and Tim Walz, D-Florida, Ranking Member of the House VA Committee, have announced the “VA Electronic Health Record Modernization: The Beginning of the Beginning”—a that hearing will take place Tuesday, June 26, at 10 a.m.

June 25, 2018

Allscripts offers buyouts to employees

Allscripts, the Chicago-based electronic health record (EHR) company, has confirmed it is offering buyouts to employees, according to reporting from POLITICO.

June 22, 2018

Struggles with EHR create frustration among physicians

Attending emergency department (ED) physicians experienced increased levels of frustration due to difficulties using electronic health records (EHRs), according to a study published May 16 in Applied Clinical Informatics.

June 14, 2018

Physicians see value in EHRs, but want improvements

American physicians see value in electronic health records (EHRs), but they still want substantial improvements, according to a survey by Stanford Medicine and conducted by The Harris Poll.

June 5, 2018

Nurse satisfaction with EHR reaches 79%—up 55% since 2014

Electronic health records have been a punching bag for many in medicine, with frequent complaints focusing on implementation problems, interference in the patient physician relationship and increased burden on care providers. Despite such problems, EHRs are making progress, with a recent survey finding 79 percent of nurses are satisfied with their systems.

May 11, 2018

25% of organizations fully adhere to ONC's SAFER guidelines for EHRs

Healthcare organizations’ adherence to the Office for the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) Safety Assurance Factors for EHR Resilience (SAFER) guidelines is low, according to a study published April 26 in the Journal of Information in Health and Biomedicine.

May 3, 2018