With digital advancements streamlining our everyday work and improving our efficiency to take on more tasks, it’s no wonder that technology has shaped our lives in this digital world. Its benefits and impacts are clear. Every industry — particularly the medical industry — needs to embrace some form of technological tools to improve day-to-day workflows.
For whatever reason, long-term post-acute care (LTPAC) facilities such as nursing homes and home care is an area that has fallen behind the technological curve. Access eHealth Technologies has 3 technological tools that we believe can greatly improve an LTPAC’s daily operations:
1. Electronic Medical Records (EMRs)
Paper-based charts and record keeping continues to be the dominant systems in LTPAC facilities today. Medical professionals go through the pain-staking and often unnecessary process of writing information via paper to transfer to another staff member. They then take the information to type out and send to another facility electronically. This is a very common scenario when a physician needs to write a prescription, a nurse needs to take vitals, or a resident is sent out to urgent care or emergency departments for specialist care.
EMRs remove these added steps, allowing a nurse, doctor or another permitted user to systematically collect patients’ health information through an organized digital archive. This information can then be directly shared on a secure platform to other facilities like a laboratory or diagnostic imaging centre. Even mitigating a few steps to this paper process could save a facility literally hundreds of hours in each week. We wrote a previous blog on the benefits of an EMR for the Canadian medical industry. Take a look at it here!
The benefits of EMRs extend far greater than just time-savings, however. With checks and balances at several key points of contact, EMRs also reduce the number of preventable medical errors within a facility. With fewer processes to remember, nurses and physicians can manage a greater quality of care to their patients reliably and consistently.
2. TeleHealth
Technology is now available for physicians to communicate with patients over tools like phone, instant messaging, or video conferencing. This brings the high-quality care of a medical facility to the comfort of the patient’s home. For example, patients that live in remote areas may find the travelling distance to a medical facility difficult or impractical. Telehealth allows remote patients to receive the same level of care from a medical facility, no matter where they live.
Furthermore, 61% of physicians are likely to start using telehealth to assess a patient’s history and needs. Reviewing tests and answering questions remotely is more efficient for all stakeholders— medical professionals, the patients, and facilities alike. Physicians can even write electronic prescriptions (or e-prescriptions) to their patients, which they can take to their nearest pharmacy. We’ve only scratched the surface of what Telehealth services can do for Canadians. Advancing technologies like remote surgeries and robotics are fast approaching.
3. Voice-assistant Technology
Voice-assistants like Siri, Google Assistant, or Alexa have already made its way into the personal homes of people today, but these forms of advanced artificial intelligence are also being found in medical offices. When physicians need to document medical history for many patients, they may find the dictation feature of a voice assistant integral to their day-to-day workflows. For example, the AI can transcribe the patient’s symptoms hands-free in a walk-in clinic while the physician takes patient assessments. Hands-free dictation removes the need for the physician to break or re-start his sanitization procedure, resulting in time saved per patient.
Conclusion
EMRs, Telehealth and voice-assistant technology will be indispensable tools to long-term post-acute care facilities (such as home care services or nursing homes) in the very near future. If you’re looking for a cloud-based medical software that can handle the needs of your facility, AccessEMR is your solution. We customize our software to each and every one of our clients to ensure it works perfectly with your practice. If you would like to see our software, book a demo with us or contact our sales team.