What are the benefits of Electronic Health Records (EHRs)?

Benefits of Electronic Health Records (EHRs)

Electronic Health Records offer four primary benefits: improving clinical decisions, supporting triage decisions, enabling better collaboration among care teams, and increasing productivity through automation of tasks. 1

Improved Clinical Decision Making

EHRs significantly enhance clinical decision making through several mechanisms:

• Clinical Decision Support (CDS) systems - These systems can improve process measures in patient care, though evidence on clinical outcomes improvement is still developing 1
• Medication safety alerts - Early studies demonstrated significant value in reducing medication errors 1
• Guideline implementation - EHRs facilitate development and deployment of clinical guidelines using increasing volumes of patient data 1
• Shared decision making - Systems can incorporate patient preferences directly into the clinical workflow, improving patient-centered care 1

Clinical Impact

EHRs can improve quality of healthcare, clinical management (diagnosis and treatment), reduce medical errors, improve patient safety, and ultimately lead to better patient outcomes 2.

Enhanced Triage and Patient Flow

EHRs support more efficient triage decisions in several ways:

• Patient flow tracking - Tools that interface with EHRs can streamline triage processes, reducing wait times and lengths of stay 1
• Risk stratification - Predictive analytics using EHR data help clinicians with risk assessment, as demonstrated in early-onset sepsis detection in newborns 1
• Resource allocation - Some triage tools may increase certain outpatient utilizations while decreasing hospitalizations, improving quality and outcomes 1

Improved Collaboration and Communication

EHRs significantly enhance team communication and coordination:

• Unified patient record - Having one record per patient facilitates collaboration among care team members 1
• Team identification - EHR-based tools can identify active members of a patient's care team 1
• Data exchange - EHRs facilitate information sharing among organizations 1
• Relational coordination - Research shows that ease of EHR use is associated with better relational coordination among primary care team members 3

Patient Engagement Benefits

• Open notes - Allowing patients to view provider notes increases transparency and can lead to more patient-centered documentation 1
• Patient-generated health data - EHRs increasingly integrate patient-supplied information, enhancing patient engagement 1
• Patient portal access - Studies show patient access to their EHRs can lead to reassurance, reduced anxiety, better doctor-patient relationships, increased medication adherence, and improved outcomes like better blood pressure and glycemic control 4

Increased Productivity Through Automation

EHRs automate numerous healthcare tasks:

• Data summarization - Systems can summarize clinical data for providers in anticipation of informational needs 1
• Automated monitoring - EHRs can perform automatic monitoring of patients in hospital or at home, decreasing workload for nurses while more rapidly identifying deteriorating patients 1
• Coding and billing efficiency - EHRs improve efficiency and accuracy of coding and billing processes 2
• Reduced paper-related expenses - Digital records reduce costs associated with paper medical records 2

Operational Benefits

• Improved information access - EHRs provide legible documentation that's available anytime and anywhere (except during system downtime) 1, 2
• Simultaneous access - Multiple users can access records at the same time from different locations 1
• Healthcare professional productivity - When properly implemented, EHRs can increase productivity of healthcare professionals 2

Implementation Challenges and Pitfalls

Despite the benefits, several challenges exist:

• Usability issues - Poorly designed EHR interfaces can decrease efficiency and contribute to clinician burnout 1
• Documentation behaviors - Copy/paste features and templates can lead to lengthy, verbose notes that are difficult to read 1
• Initial productivity loss - Learning new systems can temporarily disrupt workflows 5
• High acquisition and maintenance costs - Significant upfront investment and ongoing costs are required 5
• Privacy concerns - Patient privacy must be carefully protected, especially with increased data sharing 5

Keys to Successful Implementation

• User-centered design - Systems should be developed with input from end users 1
• Ease of use - Ensuring clinicians and staff experience EHRs as easy to use is associated with better team coordination 3
• Implementation testing - Best practices should be tested in a range of real-world contexts 1
• Detailed documentation - Interventions should be reported in enough detail that they can be replicated 1

Societal Benefits

Beyond individual and organizational benefits, EHRs offer broader societal advantages:

• Research capabilities - EHRs improve the ability to conduct research 5
• Population health management - Systems can track and improve health at the population level 5
• Cost reduction - When properly implemented, EHRs can reduce overall healthcare costs 5

By addressing implementation challenges while leveraging these benefits, healthcare organizations can maximize the value of their EHR investments and improve patient care.