The Ultimate Guide on How and Why To Go From Paper Charts to Electronic Health Records

We decided that RevolutionEHR was the best fit for our practice since as companies we share similar goals and their software is very user-friendly, cloud-based, and organized and efficient for all aspects of the practice.

One of my favorite parts about learning to use RevolutionEHR is their training platform called the “Sandbox.”

One great benefit of electronic health records over paper is the ability to manage employee access which allows for greater security and monitoring. With so many moving parts and pages involved in patient encounters, it can be very easy to leave a paper trail (in the literal sense) which creates privacy concerns and makes potential HIPAA violations a reality.

This is a major advantage of electronic health record over paper charts. Electronic health records make it incredibly easy to manage inventory in an electronic database instead of on paper. Changes can be made immediately and updated seamlessly and in real time throughout the day.

Using an electronic health records with these capabilities also easily enables you to run sales reports, and obtain specific detailed information on products and services in your practice quickly and accurately. I commonly run sales reports on a daily basis, but also on a monthly basis to compare revenue from not only prior months but prior months from the previous year. This provides great utility in examining data to make practice management decisions and track and analyze the financial health of your practice.

Another benefit of electronic health records over paper. What better way to track and manage a schedule rather than in real time. As a doctor, I cannot tell you how critical and advantageous it is to be able to track patient flow and keep yourself on time.

I routinely check the schedule during and between patient encounters, so I know if patients have canceled appointments, or if a patient has been added to the schedule with an ocular emergency. I also utilize live schedule updates to track when patients are checking in so I know how long they have been waiting. You simply cannot do this with paper charts and paper scheduling.

RevolutionEHR also has a mobile app so you can check your schedule when you’re out of the office.

Another major advantage of electronic health records over paper charts is the ability to change the type of exam template for each specific patient encounter. This is particularly important for anyone managing ocular disease or providing specialty services like vision therapy or specialty contact lenses. I’ve worked in an office with paper charts, and it can be challenging using the same template for every patient encounter.

I found myself having to write in additional testing when needed or attaching separate exam sheets and documents. This is not a very organized method and can create issues when needing to review findings and data from previous visits.

Another area where paper charts fall flat. Communicating with other healthcare professionals is critical (and in a way necessary now with meaningful use and other requirements) in current times of a team-oriented approach to patient care. Keeping a patient’s primary care physician informed of diabetic eye exam results, or sending referrals to other eyecare providers for surgical intervention or treatment and management of disease is extremely difficult to do with paper records.

Referrals and communication are made simple with electronic health record, particularly with preformed templates. Most EHRs can automatically generate a letter with pertinent exam findings based off of the type of patient encounter, which once again, will save you a lot of time.

Another great benefit of electronic health records over paper is the advent of patient portals. You can allow patients access to their information and communicate with them directly which can help form a stronger bond and relationship with them.

Obviously paper charts cannot integrate with diagnostic equipment, let alone other electronic resources. Electronic health records can not only integrate with these entities, but also communicate information between them.

Being able to access special testing results in real time during patient encounters for review is a massive time saver in any busy practice. This also helps with prescribing medications, as writing and or refilling medications and sending them to any pharmacy only takes a few clicks. My patients love having their medications waiting for them at the pharmacy by the time they leave my chair!

The wonderful thing about the Data Transfer is how easy the support team makes this process. We had a wonderful and easy experience inputting some of our current data into RevolutionEHR.