For quite a long time, the clinicians have been carrying out health records using papers. The use of paper in carrying out health records was full of challenges; sometimes, the handwritings are not legible, and it is not possible to share or store it electronically. The use of paper was also costly to copy, store, or even transport, and it was prone to damage, especially to the elements of weather. Paperwork is hard to analyze and retrieve information making the use of paper one of the sector that need changes for better health record keeping and service delivery not only in the health facilities but also to companies and organizations. In the health facilities, the use of Electronic Health Records is replacing the use of paperwork, and it is making work more comfortable and reliable to the clinicians and even to the patients. The use of electronic is making it possible to share, store, retrieve the information more easily saving time and money, and at the end enhance service delivery in the health facilities (Hillestad, 2005). This paper aims at focusing on the changes that come in after adopting Electronic Health Records (EHRs) in the medical billing cycle.
The use of Electronic Health Records has played a significant role in ensuring the patients have fast and quality service delivery. The electronic system it enables the patients to pay for the service in a very convenient method because the system allows for those providing the services in the health facilities to provide the services at a fast and accurate way in comparison to when the paperwork was in use. Electronic Health Records makes it easier to track and retrieve patient's information in comparison when people use charts that are labor intensive (Blumenthal, 2010). The electronic system also enables the health providers to retrieve patient’s results at a faster rate; for instance, the x-ray results can be shared easily using the automated system in comparison to the use of paperwork. This allows for quick service delivery because sharing results to various health providers enables faster decision-making and the moment the patient arrives at the chemist, they collect their prescribed medicine because they already have the information.
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The use of Electronic Health Records enables health-providing personnel to navigate through the entire medical history of the patients checking the health status of the person for several years back enabling proper decision making on the type of medicine the person should take. The patient's health information about the past is critical in making a decision, especially when it comes to prescribing medication because patients might have developed some resistance to some of the medicines. Electronic Health Records play a significant role in tracking and monitoring the health of the patients and help in making informed decisions that will help in assisting patients in improving their health conditions. Electronic records are also available for 24 hours a day, unlike the case of paperwork that needs a person to remove and keep the files in the store. Electronic information enables the health officers to carry out their services all through, therefore enhancing quality healthcare delivery.
By ensuring that the patients' information is available to various healthcare providers in the health facility, it is possible to carry out multiple activities simultaneously, for instance, billing clerk could be going through the electronic charts while the clinician could be analyzing clinical information at the same time. Healthcare providers working simultaneously will help save time and resources and more so enhances quality healthcare delivery to the patients and make work easier for the health officers enabling them to serve more people at any given time. The medical billing cycle will be efficient and accurate with the use of electronic record records because the system enables the smooth transfer of patient's health information from one person to another allowing the health providing personnel to make decision concurrently reducing the time that the patient spent in the medical cycle (Gans, 2005).
Use of Electronic Health Records is essential when it comes to handling lab results because it enables easy retrieval, and they are ready when one needs it. Having easy access to previous lab test results is significant because it prevents the act of test duplication and in the process, help save a lot of money and resources that could go into carrying out lab re-tests. Electronic Health Records is also crucial because they reduce the paperwork redundancy and its interfaces with the billing programs that can communicate electronically and therefore, enhance quality and accurate healthcare service delivery. The electronic system also ensures that the information reaches the patients faster in comparison to the use of paperwork where it could require more than two personnel to convey results from the lab to the patient. Nevertheless, with the help of the electronic system, the lab technician can share the results with the relevant officer and the patient gets their results at the shortest time possible with accuracy enabling correct medical prescriptions unlike before where the confusion of results might happen due to use of paperwork.
With the advancement in healthcare provision, the use of Electronic Health Records enable the clinicians to link educational content as well as a patient handout that will allows getting the answer for the medical question while the patients are still in the examination room making it even easy and accurate to get the solutions to patient's medical issues. This is significant in ensuring the flow of work when handling patients in the health facility even though the system increases the work of clinicians especially when it comes to coding the information into the system because they have to carry out data entry data by data (Menachemi, 2011). After coding and saving the information in the order, the same clinicians will enjoy secure working with the data because they will access the information more quickly, unlike when they are in paper form.
Generally, Electronic Health Records have managed to bring many changes when it comes to medical billing in health providing facilities. The electronic system of recording health information enables for the access of the information anywhere at any time and also play a significant role in avoiding duplication and for instance, in lab tests. The electronic data recording also generates quality reports regarding the health of the patients in comparison to paperwork that needs chart review and in the process, consume a lot of time as well as exhausting. Useful health reports play significant roles in developing reliable healthcare reforms that will ensure that healthcare service is quality and serve needy people as much as possible.
In conclusion, the adoption of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) has changed the medical billing cycle for the better, ensuring that the patients receive quality and quick healthcare. The system has enabled the health providing personnel to have immediate access and sharing of the information that enhances decision making more accurately and reliably. The system allows for the workers in the health facility to carry out some of their duties concurrently and in the process saves time and help the patients on time. Electronic data storage also help the doctors or clinicians when reviewing the previous health conditions of the patients, therefore, enabling them to make the right decisions, especially when it comes to prescribing the medication. Through accessing the past results, the system prevents duplication of some of the activities in the health facility, for instance, the lab test because the information is readily available in the system.
References
Blumenthal, D. &. (2010). The “meaningful use” regulation for electronic health records. New England Journal of Medicine, 363(6) , 501-504.
Gans, D. K. (2005). Medical groups’ adoption of electronic health records and information systems. Health affairs, 24(5) , 1323-1333.
Hillestad, R. B. (2005). Can electronic medical record systems transform health care? Potential health benefits, savings, and costs. Health affairs, 24(5) , 1103-1117.
Menachemi, N. &. (2011). Benefits and drawbacks of electronic health record systems. Risk management and healthcare policy, 4 , 47.
