A patient’s medical record is essential to quality patient care. Paper medical records, which are an integral part of the documentation process, need to store in a secure location. You can protect it from unauthorized access using an appropriate security measure and other protections.
Is there a more foolproof strategy for ensuring that private medical information does not get into the wrong hands? Any paper record can have an effective level of protection if it has the appropriate physical protections, personnel processes, and patient authorization. Converting a document of this kind into an electronic health record is, however, one of the most effective methods to ensure its continued confidentiality.
WHAT IS EMAR?
A medication chart’s physical (paper) form is referred to as a Medication Administration Record (MAR), while the electronic version is an eMAR. The Assisted Living EMAR software helps to make the process of ordering and tracking drugs and treatments and delivering them safely and effectively. The reduction or elimination of paper-based record keeping improves the safety of the personnel identification processes and the pharmaceutical inventory.
An electronic medication administration record (eMAR) also serves as a medical practitioner’s record of the pharmaceuticals given to a patient in a facility (or monitored remotely). However, not all eMAR systems have the same characteristics; thus, it is essential to identify the most suited system to meet your requirements.
Management Strategies Essential to the Success of Medical Records
Maintaining medical records can be challenging in today’s healthcare industry, which is experiencing fast change. However, organizations may take some actions to preserve patients’ privacy and ensure compliance with regulations.
Establish Procedures for the Management of Medical Records
For a company to efficiently handle medical records, it must first clearly identify its rules and processes for ensuring the confidentiality of patient information.
The HIPAA legislation mandates the drafting of policies and the subsequent storage of these records for a period of six years. Because of the potential impact that organizational changes might have on how patient health information is handled or protected, updates need to be made. Programs for the successful administration of medical records involve the entire company. When developing policies and procedures, senior executives should solicit feedback from every department within the organization that creates or manages records. This will ensure that no stone is left unturned.
Create In-Depth Educational Programs for Your Staff.
According to recent research, negligent employees are to blame for more than half of all cybersecurity issues at small and medium-sized organizations. Companies must provide training for each employee interacting with patients’ medical records at any point in the data lifecycle, as outlined in the HIPAA requirements.
Label Records in an Efficient Manner
Organizations require a complete taxonomy and indexing system that encompasses every form of managed record. If they are in a position to monitor patient records effectively from their creation to the point of their destruction. This makes searching more efficient and ensures that retention schedules are adhered to, saving time and money.
Automate Processes
In medicine, there is very little opportunity for human mistakes, making it difficult to ensure compliance with the numerous and complicated state and federal legislation. A centralized medical records management platform can increase accuracy, ensure consistency, and safeguard patients.
Enhance the Protection of Data
Patient records must be protected at every stage, from production to disposal. Electronic documents should have a comprehensive audit trail. At the same time, you can store paper records in an area with restricted access.
Conduct your own internal audits.
Audits required by HIPAA are exhaustive and performed regularly to verify that sufficient privacy safeguards are in place for patients. Monitoring of an organization’s performance and compliance needs to implement to assure compliance and steer clear of financial penalties.
Use EMAR
Let’s take the identical example before, but we’ll use EMAR software this time. Through the use of the eMAR database, it is simple to locate each individual patient and access their medication history. And any other relevant information required for the process of medication delivery. Interoperability is an essential component of electronic medical record systems like eMAR. This software enables numerous medical professionals to share patient information with one another effectively.
Conclusion
Additionally, eMAR provides more solutions with extra checks and balances, including the following:
-
Helping to enhance communication between the healthcare practitioner and the pharmacy.
-
Although MAR and eMAR are for the same purpose. EMAR enables more solutions than MAR.
-
Simplifying the process of getting refills while allowing real-time documentation and viewing of the prescriptions.
-
Achieving a high level of precision and effectiveness in administering medications.
-
It is timely and effective to collect and present data on the health of patients.
-
Reducing the risk of medication errors, streamlining the entire process, and enabling medical professionals to provide patients with proper care.