How EMR Integration Drives Better Outcomes
Across the healthcare industry, providers are under pressure to provide efficient, effective care that improves patient and clinical outcomes while saving time and costs. One way to achieve these goals is by leveraging patient engagement software that integrates directly into your EMR at the point of care. In this article, we’ll take a look at this important strategy and how it can help your organization.
What is EMR integration?
In software, integration refers to connecting two fundamentally distinct and siloed platforms so that they can share data. An EMR integration connects an organization’s EMR system with another program or device to enable the smooth flow of patient data between the two platforms. In this article, we’ll focus on EMR integration with digital patient engagement technology, including telehealth and interactive home exercise programs.
What is the importance of EMR integration?
When a digital health platform is integrated directly into a team’s EMR, clinicians can seamlessly log in to their patient engagement software and use its native workflows without feeling like they are leaving the EMR. Integration brings patient information into a central location at the point of care, giving clinicians the most up-to-date data possible on home exercise program adherence and allowing them to assign exercise programs directly from the EMR.
This results in:
Improved clinician compliance
For busy practitioners, sometimes it’s easier to give patients verbal instructions on which exercises to do or jot down notes for the patient on a piece of paper. But without a comprehensive, clearly documented care plan that patients can refer to as they go, they’re less likely to stay engaged with it and get better. Integrating your digital healthcare suite increases clinician compliance in assigning complete home exercise programs to patients because they can easily create and save detailed care plans in the patient record without switching over to a new application.
Time savings
EMR data integration lets providers save time by creating, assigning, and documenting patient programs directly in their EMR without having to switch between applications at the point of care. It improves the workflow of your practitioners, helping to increase their job satisfaction and empowering them to treat more patients or spend more time with the patients they have. Clinicians can send patient exercise programs and data back to their charts within the same application, and healthcare organizations can collect and record accurate patient information in a central location.
Better patient adherence
As clinicians assign home exercise programs to patients at a higher rate and tailor them to better suit patient needs, patient adherence rates naturally rise as well—setting the stage for improved patient satisfaction and outcomes. In fact, high patient adherence has been shown to improve outcomes by up to 26 percent.1
An enhanced patient experience
Integration allows you to keep patient data in a central location, which improves care coordination and the patient experience by giving multiple providers, care teams, and facilities across your organization a standardized and more detailed view of patient care programs, adherence, and feedback.
How can MedBridge help with EMR integration?
MedBridge offers a best-in-class EMR Integration Solution designed to maximize time savings, improve insights, and drive profitability. Our solution is capable of integrating with the majority of EMRs using HIPAA-compliant and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)-recommended encryption standards to protect client data.
With MedBridge, clinicians can:
- Cut down on clicks, reduce double entry, and improve compliance with automatic documentation.
- Monitor home exercise program adherence and gain insights through patient self-reports on pain, difficulty, and satisfaction.
- Assign patient home exercise programs directly from the EMR and rest assured the data is protected.
- Save over $4,500 per clinician per year. On average, clinicians using MedBridge HEP with EMR integration save two minutes per patient.
Speak to a MedBridge team member to learn how other healthcare organizations are leveraging the MedBridge EMR Integration Solution to maximize time savings, improve insights, and drive profitability.
1. Martin, L. R., Williams, S. L., Haskard, K. B., & DiMatteo, M. R. (2005). The challenge of patient adherence. Therapeutics and Clinical Risk Management, 1(3), 189–199
