On August 22, EHR Intelligence reported that effective Electronic Health Record (EHR) alerts pertaining to admission, discharge and transfer notifications or screening reminders can streamline clinical efficiency and care coordination by quickly sharing critical patient information.
There has been somewhat of an overload of EHR notifications in the past during implementation of these systems, but here are three ways that EHR alerts can be used to improve patient health outcomes.
-
- Transitions of Care. EHR notifications and alerts help keep separate care teams up to date during transitions, which help improve care coordination and reduce hospital readmissions. “This secure and cost-effective method provides the patient’s entire medical team, regardless of where they work, with the important information they need to coordinate care,” said Utah Health Information Network (UHIN) President and CEO Teresa Rivera.
- Chronic Care Management. EHR-integrated alerts offer providers clinical decision support about disease management to help treat both high and low-risk patients dealing with chronic illnesses. Alerts also help providers diagnose and begin treatment for chronic diseases earlier by reminding clinicians to screen or test for different conditions.
- Patient Safety. EHR alerts can cut back on unnecessary testing and procedures to improve patient safety, save time, and reduce spending. Using EHRs to offer patients reminders about patient status updates, test screening and care delivery improves quality of care and increases better patient health outcomes.
Access the August 22 Intelligence Report for more information.