It is of crucial importance that Electronic Health Record (EHR) software are designed in a way that they focus on patient care and improve the quality of services delivered. It has also become one of the regulatory requirements that physicians and practices must be able to show that they are doing all they can to improve patient care through the Meaningful Use of data. This concept also forms the basis of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) and aims to improve coordinated care of delivery while reducing costs.

Let’s discuss a few features of a patient-centered EHR.

1. Patient self-management: Patient data is generated through questionnaires that measure patients’ wants, needs and preferences. That information is used to structure the data in the EHR. In a patient-centered EHR system, patient education tools are readily available, and clinical alerts are delivered to both providers and patients.
2. Provides access to patient information: An ideal patient-centered EHR provides patient-level data for them to view, use and/or print. Patients can request their medical information from their provider and can exchange messages with their clinician as well.
3. Enhances patient-clinician communication: Patient-clinician communication improves vastly with a patient-centered EHR system. Through patient portals, plenty of information is available for patients at their disposal. Capturing patients’ past medical history has also been made possible through such a system.
4. Supports shared decision making: HIPAA disclosure tracking is made easy through a patient-centered EHR. Furthermore, it allows for customizable forms and patient-specific education to support collaboration. It also allows security levels of EHR data confidentiality for enterprise-wide privacy.
5. Delivers ongoing provider education: It offers Meaningful Use, PQRS, and other important KPI-based dashboards to help gauge progress on an ongoing basis. In addition, it offers webinars and strategic white papers at no additional cost.

These are just some of the hallmarks of an ideal patient-centered EHR system which can improve patient experience, satisfaction and can get them more engaged in their own healthcare.