You are probably aware that many of your competitors in healthcare have begun using electronic health record software to streamline their work. What you may not have realized is that EHR software can do much more than improve efficiencies or save your practice money. With digital information for each patient kept securely stored and easily accessible when medical professionals need it the most, EHR systems will improve patient care. Here are three ways that electronic health records keep patients safe.

The following excerpt is from an article from Midsize Insider. It was written by Marissa Tejada. Electronic health records (EHR) are predicted to offer savings in the tens of billions to the worldwide health care industry, changing health care in the process. As industries move full force into the Internet of Things (IoT), midsize firms in any industry can be poised to innovate and gain productivity.

Hospital administrators are always on the lookout for methods to run their facilities more efficiently and improve the care they provide to each patient. One of the leading indicators of how well a hospital is doing its core tasks is the rate of readmission. Discharging patients at the appropriate time and ensuring that they are only sent home with the proper support in place for recovery are important issues that administrators strive to address. Here are four ways hospitals can reduce readmission rates using electronic health record software.

Medical professionals need to remain ever vigilant when it comes to screening for infectious diseases in order to preserve the health of their patients, staff, and the general population. This is particularly important in cases of predictable epidemics (such as during each flu season) as well as the emergence of diseases in other countries that are poised to make a leap to the United States. A case in point is Ebola, which has been all over the news in recent days. Americans are coming to terms with the reality that routine air travel makes it easier for infected people to spread a highly dangerous disease regardless of national borders. We have to face the fact that Ebola is here now, at least to some degree. For this reason, Electronic Health Record systems should be able to handle Ebola screening questions right now, and not years from now.

Even though the transition to ICD-10 from the International Classification of Diseases code set version 9 has had its deadline extended to October 1, 2015, by the U.S. government, healthcare organizations shouldn’t sit on their hands. With less than a year to get ready, prudent managers will want to move their troops into preparation for the switchover as soon as possible. With that in mind, here are five things that signal your organization is ready for ICD-10.

Now that the U.S. government has extended the deadline for healthcare organizations to switch over to ICD-10 from version 9 of the International Classification of Diseases code, we all breathed a sigh of relief. Too many organizations had signaled that they would not be able to make the transition in time, so the new deadline for the mandatory switch is October 1, 2015.

Your medical practice is perfect and will continue to run just fine without you and your staff ever having to consider potential deficiencies, right? Of course not. No organization can rest on its laurels and hope to continue to meet the high standards it initially established, as conditions continue to change over the years. In order to deliver the best possible service, savvy managers of medical practices will make an effort to keep evaluating how they do things and to make sure existing protocols are up to modern challenges. With this in mind, here are three ways to improve your patient care.

No medical practice manager likes to think of himself as living in the past. However, when you have been in business for a significant period, it’s possible that you may be holding onto old habits without realizing that there are more efficient ways of doing work. Here are three outdated medical habits and practices that you can stop doing today, thanks to new developments in software and technology.

How do your patients feel about the amenities you offer at your medical practice? If it’s been a while since you thought about the first impression your organization makes on current patients and potential new patients, your waiting room may be in need of an upgrade. After all, it’s the place where your patients and their family and friends spend most of their time during visits to the doctor. Accordingly, one big thing that every medical practice needs to do is evaluate the waiting room from the perspective of patients.

The following is an excerpt from an article on Forbes. It was written by Glenn Watt, the Corporate Information Security Officer at Medidata Solutions. What are we talking about when we talk about data security? We are really talking about how we maintain the confidentiality of data to make sure only approved people have access to see that data, as well as the integrity of the data to ensure only authorized people can modify the data if needed. The third area is to ensure data availability to its owner at a time and place of their choosing and that no one is blocking that availability. So data security boils down to confidentiality, integrity and availability.