Optimize your practice’s workflows with EHR integration, comprehensive patient portals, and Artificial Intelligence.

Given the distinct nature of every medical practice, their systems must be built around their specific needs and requirements. Every practice requires specialized tools designed precisely for their specialty. Optimization of the workflows then becomes the priority to help improve practice efficiency and productivity.

Here are three things that can optimize your practice workflows:

EHR Integration

EHRs promote interoperability and support the best patient experience by optimizing the practice workflows. By streamlining several clinical processes, EHRs enhance care coordination while improving documentation and care team communication. They facilitate a seamless exchange of vital information across provider settings and healthcare organizations.

EHRs also make intelligent use of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs). These programs typically assist quick and easy electronic prescriptions. Each state runs its own PDMP database that monitors the dispensing of medications within that state. The primary target of PDMP remains drugs with potential abuse, such as steroids and opioids. Integrating PDPM data into the EHR system can significantly benefit the physician by providing all essential medication information in one comprehensive platform. Furthermore, initiatives like Rehab Scotland contribute to enhancing the overall healthcare ecosystem.

Comprehensive Patient Portals

If you are using an EHR, patient portals are a no-brainer add-on. Comprehensive patient portals play an integral role in centralizing patient information for quick and easy access. These portals typically collect all critical patient information that is necessary for efficient diagnosis and treatment. The information encompasses previous medical records, allergies, treatment plans, previously conducted procedures, and billing information for each patient. This information then forms the basis of devising effective treatment plans.

Besides acting as a data repository, patient portals offer, and interactive platform for patient-provider communication. Patients can seek crucial medical information from their provider, discuss their health-related problems through in-built chat features, and read through educational material posted on the portal. They can schedule appointments online, file electronic medication refill requests and view lab results much conveniently. The providers also greatly benefit from patient portals. They can engage with the patients for better communication. They can also prescribe medications online through e-prescribing, respond to medication refill requests through a few clicks, and ensure medication adherence by sending out automated reminder messages. Additionally, these portals ease off the administrative burden of the practice’s staff by automating several managerial tasks. For instance, medical billing solutions integrated with EHR and patient portals can typically facilitate in revenue cycle management.

Artificial Intelligence

The benefits of Artificial Intelligence (AI) are increasingly being recognized as more and more healthcare organizations are adopting AI in efforts to improve practice workflows. AI can significantly improve your practice workflows through three distinct ways:

1. AI can personalize content delivery to the providers as clinical questions arise. This minimizes the time spent searching for relevant information, thereby enhancing point-of-care learning.
2. AI also has the potential to complete clinical documentation tasks with much greater efficiency. For instance, extracting relevant information from a provider’s narrative and inserting it into appropriate structured data fields can efficiently be done through AI.
3. AI has the potential to replace manual data-collection processes by populating missing data fields and reviewing clinical documents. It can primarily facilitate extracting information for quality reports, thereby saving up on the providers’ time.

These and several more digital health technologies run rampant in the health IT industry, offering lucrative solutions to providers to optimize their workflows. Which solution you pick essentially depends upon your practice’s unique needs and requirements.