The importance of not combining a Paper Medical Record with an Electronic Medical Record

The implementation of the Electronic Health Record has been a revolution in the health sector, but it has also become a real nightmare for those centers that do not have adequate clinical management. Some centers tend to combine the use of paper health records with the use of an electronic health record system, resulting in a serious mistake Revenue Cycle Management Service in Evanston.

The combination of paper documents with electronic documents only leads to medical errors that can become really important and even dangerous. And it is that when a health center combines paper records with electronic records, it is causing a situation in which there are numerous cases of lack of communication between clinic staff or between different medical professionals. An example would be for example when a doctor writes or draws some data on paper, but this information is not collected in the electronic medical record.

It should be noted that this lack of communication can cause vital errors to be generated, especially related to the medication of patients, due to the omission of doses, allergies, or to include additional doses, errors that could generate important problems in the health of patients. Unfortunately, there is a high percentage of incidents in this regard, which is why when implementing medical software, both the health center and the medical professionals themselves should focus on using the chosen electronic system.

Reasons why medical centers use a hybrid system (paper / electronic)
There are a number of factors that have led more than one health center to combine paper records with electronic records at work. Sometimes, the very transition from a paper system to an electronic system leads to this type of situation, although there are also other reasons such as economic gaps, lack of education in the medical world of some managers, negative on the part of some worker, as well as competing priorities.

According to several studies carried out, it has been concluded that it is mainly in primary care health centers where the role persists to a greater degree, even after having implemented the best medical software. This undoubtedly affects very negatively the practices carried out by medical professionals, assistants, accountants, etc., since quality, productivity and profitability are affected.

These causes have led many clinics or health centers to go through prolonged and even indefinite “adaptation periods” in which medical center staff work with both paper and electronic records.

It should be said that even in those centers where good medical software has been implemented in the cloud, the Cloud being the simplest, most comfortable, and efficient and only use of electronic records, it can still be the case that flows of Hybrid paper-electronic work during clinical management (handwritten notes, hand-signed informed consents, etc.).

There is no doubt that the ideal to solve hybrid workflow problems is to achieve the total transition to electronic records, especially to avoid medical errors. Medical software must lead medical professionals into a new era where paper records do not exist.

Increase in medical errors due to water workflows
The reality is that thousands of incidents have been reported that occur each year by combining electronic work with paper records, ranking as the sixth problem in the list of most common medical incidents.

Most of these incidents were directly related to an incorrect medical prescription, and as it is more than evident, prescribing the wrong drugs can generate serious risks to the health of patients. Adopting electronic prescription systems and discarding traditional paper prescriptions is an effective way to operate on a day-to-day basis without making mistakes or putting patients at risk.

In addition, it should be noted that when a hybrid workflow is combined where both systems coexist, productivity in general tends to be significantly reduced, since the main problem lies in duplication of work, for this reason it is advisable to use only one system of electronic medical records to facilitate the work and avoid major losses occur time and money.

Although, a priori, combining both systems may seem like the easiest solution in the clinical management of the center, it has been shown that this is not the case at all, and that this combination will bring serious problems in the future.