How Your Healthcare Provider Maintains Your Medical Records

Written By Anita Ginsburg / Reviewed By Ray Spotts

Traditionally, hospitals maintained paper-based health records and files, which was complex and challenging. As technology advances, the healthcare sector is implementing new tools for creating, collecting, and storing patients’ data. Healthcare providers can virtually create, store, and collect patients’ healthcare data using computer technology.

Since every health facility is looking to overcome the challenges associated with paper-based health records and charts, such as frequent medical errors, time wastage, and inconsistency, healthcare records management tools are fast-gaining popularity.

Nonetheless, healthcare providers must comply with federal guidelines to protect patient privacy while using these technological tools.

Outsourcing Back-Office Healthcare Operation Services

Studies show that about 85 percent of healthcare providers use electronic medical records (EMR) systems to manage patients’ records in a digital setting. Even though medical records tools reduce errors and improve efficiency, healthcare providers find it challenging to comply with legal and ethical guidelines.

Back-office healthcare operation services are the solution to healthcare facilities' administrative and record-keeping challenges. Healthcare back-office support services for healthcare facilities majorly focus on non-medical areas, such as insurance verification, collections, billing, and counseling, aspects of patient management records.

In addition, back-office healthcare operation services office medical records indexing, including clinical history, medical reports, patient demographics charts, and EOBs to save time and space.

Using Electronic Health Records (EHR)

EHR tools provide a patient data management system that helps healthcare providers deliver higher quality care to patients than paper-based records. The need to reduce medical errors by enhancing the accuracy and clarity of medical records has resulted in an increase in EHR tools in healthcare facilities.

EHR tools were originally introduced as an alternative to paper medical records because they make storing and accessing patient information easier and fast.

Today, healthcare providers exclusively rely on EHR tools to manage patient data because they understand the benefits of EHR tools, including access to comprehensive and up-to-date patient records, improved patient data security and privacy, and reduced costs.

Using Electronic Medical Records (EMRs)

Healthcare providers use electronic medical records (EMR) tools to discover more robust and reliable quality improvement programs than traditional paper-based paper records. EMR tools store online medical records that physicians can use for diagnosis and treatment.

In addition, EMRs allow healthcare providers to identify patients due for checkups, monitor and improve care practice, track patient data, and check patients' progress. Today, EMRs have been extended in healthcare facilities to collect, organize, maintain, and retrieve patients’ medical records, eliminating the need for paper-based files and charts.

Technological advancement in healthcare has made healthcare providers realize a gap in medical records management. Healthcare providers have realized the challenges of traditional approaches and switched to these advanced approaches that guarantee better care and patient outcomes.

The use of back office healthcare operation services, EMRs, and EHRs in healthcare facilities is the future of medical records management.

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Written By:

Anita Ginsburg is a freelance writer from Denver, Colo. She studied at Colorado State University, and now writes articles about health, business, family and finance. A mother of two, she enjoys traveling with her family whenever she isn't writing. You can follow her on Twitter @anitaginsburg.

Reviewed By:

Founder Ray Spotts has a passion for all things natural and has made a life study of nature as it relates to health and well-being. Ray became a forerunner bringing products to market that are extraordinarily effective and free from potentially harmful chemicals and additives. For this reason Ray formed Trusted Health Products, a company you can trust for clean, effective, and healthy products. Ray is an organic gardener, likes fishing, hiking, and teaching and mentoring people to start new businesses. You can get his book for free, “How To Succeed In Business Based On God’s Word,” at www.rayspotts.com.