Some healthcare organizations have several hundred IT systems across the enterprise. With all of these systems, it can be difficult to get the information you need, when you need it. Open the program, wait for it to load, perform your search, switch back to the other program, reference your notes, etc. In a perfect world, all of this content would be available in the electronic medical record (EMR). EMRs are great solutions and will continue to be well into the foreseeable future, but everyone needs some help once in a while.
Despite Herculean efforts to the contrary, many clinicians are not fully utilizing the EMR. If the information they need is too difficult to find or simply isn’t there, why would they? Sharing clinical data across the enterprise is difficult, especially when multiple different specialty areas create and store various forms of clinical content in disparate, disconnected systems.
Many CIOs are simplifying the lives of clinicians by enabling them to see all patient content from a window within the EMR. By unifying all clinical content and providing secure access through the EMR, CIOs are empowering clinicians to make more informed decisions and deliver more effective care. Leveraging powerful, scalable and flexible systems like enterprise content management (ECM) solutions, help connect information across the organization while presenting it in a manner which benefits clinicians.
Centralize clinical content across the enterprise
ECM brings all types of clinical content together, including DICOM such as X-rays and non-DICOM content such as PDFs, rhythm strips and wound photos. And, it does so without having to first migrate the images produced in Radiology, Cardiology, Oncology or any other “ology” to an enterprise VNA or archive solution.
Through an integration with the EMR, clinicians and staff have a single point of access, within the EMR, to view clinical content in its native format and in context with the patient record.
Establishing a single point of access within the EMR, helps healthcare organizations:
- Avoids medical errors by maintaining patient context
- Reduces moving from system to system
- Avoid purchasing a variety of system licenses
- Reduce unnecessary clinical scans and duplicate texts
- Provide clinicians one place to view CT scans, MRIs and X-rays as well as EKGs, fetal strips, pathology reports and wound images within context
As a result, clinicians spend less time searching for the clinical content and have more data to inform treatment plans, make diagnoses or educate patients.
The latest test results and changes to established treatment plans are quickly and automatically identified for clinicians using case containers, timeline reviews, thumbnails as well as side-by-side comparisons. These allow clinicians to view notes from referring physicians alongside ultrasounds, examine today’s EKG alongside a previous one and see X-rays next to the associated radiologist report.
Content is king, especially in healthcare. The data obtained from tests and exams is critical to patient safety and care. Make sure your clinicians have access to all the data they need when they need it from within the EMR – all patient content in one place.