If you’re a healthcare professional, you know how important it is to choose the right electronic medical record (EMR) software for your company. EMR is the digital version of a patient’s chart within a healthcare organization, containing many details that may qualify as protected health information (PHI) under U.S. law. But it’s also essential for streamlining communication and collaboration among healthcare providers.
What You Should Know About Electronic Medical Records
When people seek healthcare treatment, they expect to provide their information to the professionals and organizations that have them in their care. Healthcare providers typically collect all of this information into electronic medical records. Some people may not even keep track of their own medical information—simply relying on their healthcare providers to do that for them.
What You Can Find in EMR
Why is EMR so critical to the behavioral healthcare industry? EMR can contain the following protected health information of patients:
- Demographics
- Medical history
- Diagnoses
- Medications
- Allergies
- Immunizations
- Lab results
- Vital signs
- Progress notes
- Treatment plans
- Radiology images and reports
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulates access to PHI to ensure patient privacy and security. Unauthorized access to PHI can result in significant fines and penalties for healthcare organizations. If not for anything else, using EMR software can save your company from paying potential fines due to unintentional mishandling of PHI.
PHI Challenges Behavioral Health Centers Face
Behavioral health providers often face even more challenges when handling PHI. Here are some of the common PHI issues behavioral health organizations may encounter:
- Managing sensitive patient information – Sensitive information can include details about mental health diagnoses, substance abuse treatment, and therapy sessions.
- Complying with state and federal privacy regulations – Behavioral healthcare providers must comply with local, state, and federal privacy regulations, such as HIPAA.
- Maintaining data accuracy and completeness – Inaccurate or incomplete medical records can negatively impact patient care and lead to misdiagnoses or ineffective treatment plans.
- Sharing information among different departments – EMR software can promote secure communication and collaboration among all departments involved in a patient’s care.
- Integrating EMR with other systems – Behavioral health centers must integrate their EMR system with other systems for a smooth and efficient workflow.
- Ensuring data security – Behavioral health centers must protect PHI from unauthorized access or cyberattacks.
Behavioral health centers must address these challenges carefully, as any mishandling of PHI can damage trust between patients and providers or result in legal consequences.
How to Choose the Right EMR Software for Your Company
Due to technology advancements in recent years and government regulations and laws like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, electronic medical record software use has become a typical part of the healthcare industry.
Is your treatment center using EMR software yet? If so, is the software doing a good job? Many healthcare organizations can get stuck on issues that would be better solved by choosing EMR software that integrates with other management solutions for business.
What to Look for in EMR Software
While protecting patient information is part of what great EMR software should offer, it should also provide the following:
- Accurate documentation and data input
- Easy access to patient information from anywhere
- Secure sharing of protected health information among healthcare providers
- Customizable templates for different healthcare specialties
Sunwave Health offers all this and integrates with solutions for revenue cycle management (RCM) and customer relationship management (CRM).
What to Expect from Sunwave Health
Sunwave Health’s EMR software helps healthcare professionals manage PHI. It eliminates human errors in data entry, management, and organization while improving communication and collaboration among team members.
Our team at Sunwave Health understands that choosing the right EMR software is a significant decision for your company. We specifically design our solutions for substance abuse and behavioral health treatment organizations and can further tailor them to meet your needs. Our digital platform can help you streamline office processes, improve patient care, and comply with HIPAA regulations.
Working with Sunwave Health means a better patient journey. For example, in substance abuse treatment, we understand that the typical patient goes from detox to inpatient to outpatient treatment. Our digital solution is built to support that and will make working with different payments and insurances easier for both the healthcare providers in your team and their patients.
Schedule a Sunwave Health Demo Now
Why settle for just electronic medical record software when you can work with a digital platform offering EMR management, revenue cycle management, and customer relationship management? Sunwave Health’s platform also provides alumni management solutions in the same integrated platform.
To find out how a specialized and comprehensive digital platform for your organization can improve the way you do business management, contact our Sunwave Health team online or call 561.576.6037 today.
