The story behind electronic medical records is fascinating. It all started when someone started pondering the reason behind the illegible handwriting of doctors. The reason was that most doctors were in a hurry and did not have the time to ensure neat handwriting. But, this was no petty matter. The bad handwriting had become the cause for many wrong prescribed medications and the complications that accompany them.

Also, hospital management was suffering, as the time taken to send documents to and fro to the insurance company was very long. One small doubt and the process had to be repeated all over again. The doctor’s handwriting ensured that there were plenty such doubts delaying the payment cycle.

The answer for all these solutions came in the form of an electronic medical records system. Here is how the story unfolded and the benefits it accrued to each party.

Records by Each Patient: As soon as the information could be recorded electronically, handwriting ceased to be an issue. In addition, patients were spared the horror of a wrong diagnosis. Now, they do not need to carry any paper files around with them. All their information was accessible to the doctors with a few clicks of a mouse. This is because document scanning ensured that their past prescriptions were easily available.

Ready Availability of Information: Doctors are never short of information required for making quick decisions. They can now deal with the facts recorded in the patient’s medical file rather than having to believe what they say from memory. In addition, since operations can be performed on electronic medical records, doctors could easily rearrange the information in a format, which was conducive to decision-making. The end result of the system was that doctors could tend to more patients and their accuracy level also increased.

Faster Claims Processing: A lot of time is saved for the insurance company as claims can now be processed faster. They took considerably less time, as the information did not have to be physically sent back and forth. With electronic medical records, the missing information was available in real time and doubts can be solved in real time. Also, the numbers of doubts were reduced since electronic medical records meant that illegibility was out of the question. Thus, the insurance companies could increase their efficiency and close their claims faster.

Faster Cash Cycle: The hospitals benefited too. As they were primarily commercial operations, they were suffering from cash flow because of information delays. The rising costs of doctors were also a pain for them.

Electronic medical records facilitated better utilization of doctors as well as a faster cash cycle.