A new study shows how a move from paper records to electronic medical records can speed up the treatment of Chlamydia, a sexually transmitted disease. Expect to see more of these types of studies bolster the use of EMRs and EHRs.
This new study found that through the use of EMRs the percentage of patients treated within two weeks of diagnosis doubled. The medical records of 100 patients at a sexual health clinic were examined. Before the switch to EMRs, patients were treated an average of 11.5 days after being diagnosed with Chlamydia. After the EMR system was implemented, the rate dropped to 3.5 days. The percentage of those treated within two weeks of testing positive went from 38 percent to 94 percent.
With sexually transmitted diseases, swift treatment is critical. The longer the disease goes untreated the greater the potential for complications and more expensive treatment, not to mention the potential for spreading the disease.
More researchers should study what other conditions or diseases can be identified and thus treated more quickly as a result of digitizing patient records.
Let us know if your hospital, healthcare system or physician group has been able to see any trends in disease detection through EHR reporting, and what the impact has been on treatment and clinical outcomes. Tell us how you set up the reporting, and what other logistical issues your organization faced.
The more we study the impact of EHRs and EMRs, the more we can share best practices within the industry. As the authors stated, providers can improve their ability to treat patients rapidly with the appropriate use of technology. If the tools are made available to providers, they ought to make use of them.
Photo by kaibara87 via Creative Commons license.
