With healthcare reform moving at a swift pace, hospitals, physician practices, nursing homes, physical therapy centers and all U.
S.
medical facilities are going through a series of dynamic changes.
Beginning with HIPAA laws concerning privacy and portability of patient information, the move to organize medical records into a more efficient, confidential and accessible electronic format began to transform patient information from paper to electronic files.
It has become law that all medical records must become part of an electronic health records (EHR) system by 2015.
Seemingly arduous and costly upfront, both money and time will be saved in the long run while increasing integrity, confidentiality, and data transfer and retrieval.
Streamlining medical record paper folders, transcription cassettes, and complex coding and filing procedures will alleviate lost documents, provide immediate test and lab results to physicians, and coordinate patient care from intake to billing.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act enacted by President Obama in 2009, made stimulus funds available to fast-track IT to improve the delivery of U.
S.
healthcare.
Incentives were offered to Medicare and Medicaid providers to act promptly in turning healthcare IT into a more longitudinal system before 2015.
After the deadline, those not in compliance will face fines and lost funding instead of the receiving the stimulus incentives Challenges will be continuous as rules, standards, regulations, protocols and controls are being written, implemented, and adopted every day.
Adaptation to changes in systems such as client relationship management (CRM) is imperative to a smooth transition.
Making the transition to a medical CRM should be one of the first technological advances to consider.
CRM is a method of managing customer or client information using an IT database.
Initially used by sales professionals to store contacts, track and make appointments, and produce customer sales life cycle positions, advances in CRM technology have made it possible to design client and profession-specific derivatives and variables within each system to perform a variety of functions.
In the case of healthcare, medical CRM systems keep track of patient information from initial referral through appointments, lab work, pharmacy contacts, specialist visits, phone messages and countless other pieces of patient data.
Besides storage, CRMs analyze data and produce reports; initiate follow-up appointments through automated emails; send prescriptions to pharmacies without phone call or paper forms; and provide countless additional functions.
Every day, IT produces developments such as physician order entry and demographic monitoring of public health.
Technology has devised the capability for CRM to interact with mobile devices and apps.
These are not yet certified by the government oversight.
Current health care regulations require EHR technology to meet certain qualifications and testing for EHR certification.
As innovations continue, however, requirements, standards and testing develop simultaneously in the hopes healthcare information will be a coordinated, fully integrated system by 2015.