Patient Empowerment through Custom EHR: Giving Patients Control of Their Health

Electronic Health Records have transformed healthcare practices and paved the roadmap that allowed healthcare practices to go digital. In this transition from practice-based healthcare delivery to virtual care delivery with EHR software, the major concern was usually related to the involvement of patients in their care journey.

While proactive involvement of patients in their care journey is one of the hardest aspects of care, many healthcare providers are shifting to custom healthcare software solutions. While there are many solutions that aim to keep the patients hooked with their health journey, nothing comes even close to custom EHR software that allows patients to take control of their health.

By keeping data at the center to deliver care, these customized EHR solutions empower patients to manage their health in a holistic way. Furthermore, as the trends of holistic care delivery are slowly becoming a norm, why not lay the foundation in its very first step?

On that note, let’s explore the lucrative benefits of custom EHR software for healthcare providers and how it improves patient-provider collaboration by allowing patients to take control of their health.

Empowering Patients through Personalized Access

To put it simply, electronic health records are nothing but a comprehensive and electronic version of your entire health history. Being a healthcare provider you must know this, and the information it contains. Moreover, since it is connected with desperate healthcare systems such as test labs, pharmacies, you don’t have to worry about manually updating these changes.

Now, in a custom EHR software, you give the patients direct access to their health records, where they can easily access their medical history, test results and treatment plans. They also get the liberty to directly access everything they require through the patient portal, which makes the navigation fairly easy.

Along with that, the medical terminology is quite difficult to understand to someone from a non-medical field. The custom EMR software provides a solution to that as well, by customizing the interfaces with visuals and summaries that help the patient understand the reading in a better way.

Last but not least, there is always something that medical professionals might miss, but when patients take control of their health, they fill in their own information such as allergies, medications, etc. This not only improved their engagement in the care journey but also improved accuracy and control in providing holistic care.

Fostering Patient Engagement & Self-Management

When we talk about patient engagement, it literally means their proactive involvement indecision making and taking steps to manage their health by themselves. While there are several ways in which it can be done, giving them proof will only give them more encouragement.

By integrating your custom EHR software with wearable devices and health apps, patients can actively track their health metrics. This provides them enough details to know what changes are needed to be brought in their lifestyle that would help them in making their health better.

Furthermore, to simplify their understanding process, the integrated data can be visualized and analyzed within the custom EHR software itself. This would further empower the patients to monitor their progress and make informed decisions about their health. For instance, if a person with a heart condition sees a surge in cholesterol levels, then they can self-assess and make necessary changes in life to keep their cholesterol in control.

Along with that, your custom EHR software can also include educational resources which patients can use for educating themselves. In this way, with your custom EHR software you can promote self-care initiatives and take effective preventive measures.

Strengthening Patient-Provider Communication

We often hear that communication is the key, and in healthcare it is the key to not only deliver personalized care but also to proactively involve patients in their care journey. While instant communication can be established through traditional means, there are many obstacles that can disrupt this.

On the other hand, with custom EHR software, you can integrate secure messaging features to allow real-time and seamless communication between patients and their care teams. For instance, with a secure messaging feature, communication can be effective in improving patient health outcomes, where, in case of any confusion or experiencing any issue, the patient can directly connect with the provider to address their concerns promptly and in real-time.

To further personalize the experience, the custom EHR can be used to streamline appointments and request medication refills. In this way, patients can improve their involvement in their care journey, be a part of taking informed care decisions and share their own needs and insights through which more inclusive and holistic care can be delivered.

Enhancing Security & Privacy

In this entire process, your custom EHR software will be majorly dealing with sensitive data which is very private in nature. While traditional, off-the-shelf software is secure, with custom healthcare software, you can further enhance the security and ensure privacy of patients.

For instance, with the custom EHR software you can prioritize robust security measures which are specific to your healthcare practice. This might include abiding by all the regulations and compliances like HIPAA, GDPR, state-specific practice laws that are specific to your practice.

In this way, you and your patients are more in control of the data that is being stored and managed in the custom EHR software. Along with that, patients also get the liberty to selectively share the information with the personnel they want to share that information with.

Frequently Asked Questions