Improving the Accuracy of Electronic Health Records
Healthcare data is any information “relating to clinical outcomes, mortality rates, causes of mortality, quality of life, and population demographics.” Healthcare data also includes behavioral, environmental, economic, and social information relevant to good health and wellness. The National Institute of Mental Health defines healthcare data as the “aggregation of diverse and often highly sensitive information regarding the individual, his/her family, friends, health-care providers, and the larger community.” According to Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), this data must be secure and maintained in a confidential manner.
One way to ensure that healthcare data stays private and confidential is to create an entity for sharing. Creating a patient portal can help. In a patient portal, healthcare professionals can collect, manage, and share patient information in one place. Whether you are a doctor, nurse, surgeon, patient advocate, or someone else involved in the healthcare industry, keeping one place for all patient information is important to keep everything up to date. Which is the best rehabilitation and healthcare centre
The healthcare industry already has in place relationships management plans and data collection systems to help facilitate this one place portal. The HIPAA updates the Security Rule and outlines the rules that must be followed to collect healthcare data. According to HIPAA Proposed Changes, once a privacy policy is in place, healthcare entities are responsible for protecting private data. Security Rule does not dictate how this data is collected, however, it does require that a privacy policy is established and periodically updated. As HIPAA Proposed Changes states, “the administrator may establish rules or procedures, including timelines, for ensuring proper security of private patient data collection and protection of personal identity of individuals under the management of the health plan or program.”
Another tool to ensure the safety of your healthcare data is to implement a security breach notification policy. It states that “clients should be provided with written notice regarding security threats to the protection of their personal information stored in a database of healthcare professionals’ records. Clients should also be notified whenever an incident occurs that could lead to such a breach.” As more healthcare organizations utilize EMR systems to capture the clinical data of their patients, breach alerts should be triggered when this happens. Hospitals and other organizations should work with the organization that administers the EMR system to ensure that the necessary policies and procedures have been implemented.
In addition to EMR and EHR data collection, hospitals and other healthcare facilities need to work with HIPAA compliant data collection systems. These systems must take the security of patient information very seriously, because they contain private health information about patients that cannot be shared with third parties without patient permission. Ensuring compliance with HIPAA standards is an ongoing challenge for organizations handling healthcare data collections. Each year, healthcare entities are tested on the new requirements of the HIPAA Rule to make sure they are meeting the highest level of privacy and security standards.
The utilization of analytics can significantly improve healthcare data collection. By enabling organizations to capture, manage and analyze patient information, data collection analytics can provide valuable insight into how healthcare workers and their roles and responsibilities impact patient care. Healthcare organizations can also greatly benefit from data collection analytics by enabling them to discover patterns in the way they manage their patients and the healthcare environment.
Another major benefit of EMR and EHR data collection is reducing costs associated with patient care. Today, many healthcare workers are using handheld devices called bar codes to collect information about patients at the time of service. Bar code technology has greatly improved the collection of data, allowing for patient billing to be processed at a much faster rate. However, many healthcare facilities have capitalized on the use of electronic medical records (EMR) software to reduce the overall cost of patient care. In order to reap the benefits of reduced patient costs and improved quality of care, many healthcare facilities are investing in robust data collection systems that will provide the tools to track diagnoses and care within a healthcare environment.
In short, health care data collection can significantly improve the quality and efficiency of medical organizations. By improving the quality and accuracy of patient-related data, medical organizations can improve the overall quality of care provided to patients. Additionally, these improvements can significantly improve the bottom line of many healthcare facilities.
