How do accreditation organizations use health records?
One of the ways accreditation organizations use the health record is by looking at how well the clinic manages patient information. They may also look at how up-to-date the patient’s records are and complete.
Additionally, accreditation organizations may review how accessible patient information is. This includes making sure that staff can access documents from any device.
Accreditation organizations may also review the electronic health record system that a clinic uses to check how well it works and meets standards. They will look at whether or not a clinic can use a digital signature on the health record and how users are notified of updates to rules for storing patient information.
What is a medical home?
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A medical home is an idea for how primary care should be organized so that patients have access to support, coordination, and improved quality of care. In essence, all of these elements work together.
Hence, patients have continuity in their care through their doctor’s office rather than visiting multiple providers who don’t communicate with each other as much as they should.
Many health care accreditation organizations embrace the medical home concept to improve the quality of care patients receive. The hope is that this coordinated care will help to prevent problems like duplicate tests and treatments, hospitalizations, and other costly medical events.
How does an electronic health record system support a medical home?
An electronic health record system supports a medical home by providing doctors and other providers with coordinating patient care. In addition, it can help to identify patients who may need extra help in managing their chronic conditions.
Electronic health records can also make it easier for doctors to share information about their patients. This includes test results and notes from previous doctor’s visits to ensure that everyone involved in a patient’s care has access to the most up-to-date information.
Having an electronic health record system also makes it easier for providers to deliver telehealth services or have video conferences with one another, which are essential parts of techniques focused on coordinating care over time.
The EHR can help provide the documentation needed so providers can review what happened during these sessions and share this information with their patients.
What kind of benefits could accreditation organizations see from medical homes?
Accreditation organizations may see improved quality of care, fewer preventable health problems, reduced hospitalizations, and lower costs due to medical home concepts like providing integrated care. The EHR can help accreditation organizations review whether or not a clinic’s staff is using these techniques and, if not, why that might be.
For example, suppose an organization reviews patient records and sees that the same test has been repeated several times over a short time. In that case, it may assume that there were communication problems between providers who did not know what other tests had already been done.
This could indicate poor care coordination and point to the need for better integration in the medical home model.
How do doctors use online video sessions with patients to provide healthcare services?
An electronic health record typically includes information about when a doctor has scheduled an online video session, what it entails, and the order in which patients need to do things like downloading software or completing other steps beforehand.
This information lets clinic staff know when to expect the patient’s online visit and what they should do for their part of the session.
Telehealth sessions are scheduled in advance, with both doctor and patient making arrangements at separate times. A doctor will complete an assessment using pre-recorded questions or ones they type into their computer during the appointment with a patient.
Then they can review test results, lab results, notes from previous doctor visits, and medication lists before starting their visit with a patient who may also participate in some parts of this process with live audio or text chat enabled.
An electronic health record system can help doctors provide telehealth services by managing patient information to conduct their visits more efficiently. It also makes it easier to schedule these appointments, prepare for them, and document the sessions afterward so both patients and providers can access the same information.
This can be especially helpful if different clinics are involved in a patient’s care. Hence, every one providing treatment has to access the most up-to-date information about their patient.
How does an electronic health record system support quality improvement?
Electronic health records systems allow medical home practices to use data management capabilities like tracking test results and medication lists over time to identify potential problems, prioritize research projects, and measure outcomes to improve the quality of care they offer.
Clinics can also use these systems to submit data to accreditation organizations and receive feedback about how they are doing.
An electronic health record system can support quality improvement by helping clinics identify patients at risk for developing preventable health problems. The system can do this by tracking how often a patient has seen a doctor, their test results, and medications.
This information can help clinic staff develop care plans that will help keep their patients healthy.