How EMR/EHR Workflow Integrations Are Improving Healthcare

There is no doubt Electronic Medical Records (EMR) and Electronic Health Records (EHR) systems have digitized healthcare with a new way to store and access patient data. Studies show that  96% of all non-federal acute care hospitals and 78% of office-based physicians have implemented a certified EHR system—and for good reason. 

The widespread adoption of EMR/EHRs has created important systems of record in the digital healthcare ecosystem. Enhancing EHR workflow by integrating best-in-class external insights is an effective  way to improve the quality of patient care and the return on investment (ROI) from EHRs and external third-party solutions.

As healthcare technology advances, these integrations continue to evolve, enabling healthcare providers to make more informed decisions, reduce costs, and ultimately enhance the patient experience. Creating the right EHR workflow that seamlessly integrates external solutions is essential to reduce clinician burnout.

What are EMR/EHR Workflow Integrations?

EMR/EHR workflow integrations are processes and technologies by which various healthcare information technology systems are connected into an EMR/EHR to drive decisions at the point of care and key decision points. 

This includes integrating healthcare analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), value-based care, gaps in care, telehealth and other solutions to make them more accessible and actionable in the EHR/EMR. 

Ideally, it involves seamlessly incorporating these digital health record systems into the broader healthcare ecosystem to incorporate best-of-breed external solutions. Effective integrations are crucial for modern healthcare settings as available information grows and clinicians need a way to access applicable insights immediately—when they’re with a patient, deciding on a treatment. The right integrations can streamline processes, improve patient care, and enhance ROI.

Improving Healthcare with the Right Insights

Advanced EMR/EHR workflow integrations embed external third-party solutions into automated EMR/EHR workflow to offer the following benefits:

Improved Patient Care

Data-driven recommendations offer great opportunities for improving the delivery of care. According to an August 2023 research study, seventy-four percent (74%) of physicians reported they changed their initial diagnosis or altered a treatment plan for a patient based on the insights from solutions that were external to their EHR. Such trends highlight the need for effective EMR/EHR workflow integrations to improve healthcare. 

When effective workflow integrations occur and up-to-date, relevant insights from third-party analytics companies are presented to the physician immediately, right within their EHR workflow window, the physician will be more likely to to make informed treatment decisions. 

Ultimately, effective integration empowers providers to offer the best possible care, resulting in a better patient experience and better clinical outcomes. Additionally, seamless EMR/EHR integrations facilitate better coordination among different healthcare teams involved in a patient’s care, identifying gaps and leading to more holistic and effective treatment while helping ensure proper coding, documentation, and reimbursement.

Enhanced Virtual Treatment and Remote Patient Monitoring with the Right Insights at the Provider’s Fingertips

Telehealth is a field of healthcare that continues to grow. Integrating electronic medical records with telehealth solutions enables healthcare providers to seamlessly offer virtual treatment to patients from anywhere and anytime. 

Effective integration in this area ultimately improves providers’ experience while boosting healthcare outcomes for patients with transportation and mobility issues. Today, remote patient monitoring (RPM) offers an avenue for real-time delivery of health information between patients and care teams. 

EMR/EHR integration solutions can be combined with an RPM program, empowering healthcare providers to use the most recent insights available from third-party solutions to offer the data required to improve treatment outcomes and deliver high-quality patient care. 

The right integration platform simplifies documenting and billing for patient care and reduces the additional workload for clinical teams. All the data-driven recommendations available to a clinician for an individual patient’s treatment can be presented in a single window, and manual tasks are automated. 

Clinicians can simply choose the appropriate treatment, coding, and documentation options and the integrated workflow will transfer the information into the patient record, with appropriate coding and documentaton. 

Enhanced Care Coordination

Medical and technological best practices are continually evolving, and the need to improve across the continuum of care is being recognized as increasingly essential. Such expectations require teams of healthcare providers, from primary care physicians to specialist nurses and technicians, to work collaboratively to deliver tailored treatment plans. 

Without effective EMR/EHR workflow integrations, the healthcare team’s view of the patient can easily be muddled with disconnected information. Each team member has limited interactions with the patient and a unique perspective on their health issues.  

But today’s EHRs can effectively be enhanced to integrate external solutions—clearly and efficiently—to organize patient insights and make it available to all authorized providers in real-time. This reduces the fragmentation of care, helps identify gaps, and facilitates better coordination among different healthcare teams involved in a patient’s care—ultimately leading to more holistic and effective treatment.

Enhanced Patient Satisfaction and Loyalty

Studies show that over 40 million Americans are affected by health data breaches each year. The need to safeguard patient data has never been more crucial. EMR/EHR systems are built with solid security safeguards to prevent unauthorized access to patient data and enhance a healthcare provider’s resilience in the rapidly evolving cybersecurity landscape. 

These systems ensure access to patient information is only granted to providers on a need-to-know basis. Enhanced cybersecurity in healthcare not only protects patient data but also contributes to a positive patient experience. Patients who feel their data is secure and trust their healthcare providers are more likely to be satisfied, loyal, and willing to engage with digital healthcare services.

Increased Savings and Revenue

Integrating EMR/EHR systems with external systems can improve hospital savings and revenue. These systems automate various procedures—including scheduling, inventory management, and billing—while decreasing administrative workload. 

The savings from these tasks allow hospitals to commit more resources to patient care, leading to increased revenue at the same time that patients obtain better quality treatment. Additionally, EMR system integration can minimize errors and improve billing accuracy, thus helping healthcare facilities reduce costs related to claim rejection and refused reimbursements. 

Improved Visibility

Implementing an integrated EMR/EHR with an analytics solution (which can include artificial intelligence and machine learning) gives healthcare providers enhanced visibility across all the various care settings. EMR/EHR systems allow for real-time updates to patient records. The right workflow integrations make it easy for a healthcare provider to access and act on new data-driven recommendations at the point of care to improve patient care and reimbursement.

Real-time access to insights enhances visibility into a patient’s ongoing care and progress and presents opportunities to improve the delivery of care. External solutions including decision support tools generate insights for healthcare providers. This technology can help healthcare professionals make more informed decisions to improve patient outcomes. 

External solutions, including decision support systems, enhance visibility into data-driven insights from analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), best practices, and evidence-based care.

Improve Your Clinical Outcomes with Insiteflow EHR Decision Workflow Solutions

In today’s highly competitive healthcare marketplace, it’s essential that EHR/EMR systems are effectively integrated with external solutions in ways that quickly and easily empower clinicians to find and apply data-driven recommendations to improve care and reimbursement. Caregivers do not have time to waste on double data entry, going to external websites, or scrolling through drop-down menus to find the insights that can help them treat patients effectively.The Insiteflow EHR Decision Workflow platform empowers the care team to improve clinical outcomes and financial performance by seamlessly integrating external third-party solutions into the EHR workflow. Our software as a service (SAAS) platform empowers healthcare professionals to enhance patient care with better-informed decisions through automated EHR workflows. We make external solutions accessible, actionable and automated in EHRs, enabling care teams to harness insights to make improvements at the point of care and other key decision points. Contact us today to schedule a demo.