Health care, which has always been based on the doctor-patient interaction is facing a challenge in the era of meaningful use stage 2: How do you reconcile the importance of in patient-doctor interactions with the need for standardized structured data capture?
For many health-care providers, the start of meaningful use stage 2 in 2014 will bring more rigorous standards for the capture of data, including demographic information, encounter diagnosis, lab results, allergies and medications. Documenting this data in a structured fashion is important for maintaining accuracy when moving patient data to other settings, and thereby facilitating more efficient care.
However, many physicians are used to taking free-text notes from patient interactions, and feel that the structured documentation required by meaningful use stage 2 will be an onerous process.
It may not be all that bad, however. The codified information required by meaningful use stage 2 allows for easy aggregation and retrieval of data, and that benefits patients and providers alike. Physicians will be able to query databases and obtain patient information quickly. This will streamline the physician’s workflow, allowing him or her to give more informed care.
Many electronic medical record (EMR) providers recognize this conundrum, and thus many EHRs on the market today address the issue, allowing physicians to interact with them in a way that is perfectly natural. If you are looking for a more natural EMR that will allow you to take notes the way you prefer, contact us today to see what we have to offer.
