Small health care providers can benefit from document management

Small health care providers can benefit from document management

Small health care providers can benefit from document management

While many large health care providers across the U.S. have long since switched to a comprehensive document management strategy for their electronic health records, organization may not be as common for smaller firms. Often, they don't have the budget, staff or technical wherewithal to make an effective switch, instead doing it piecemeal.

This, however, can put smaller care providers at a disadvantage because they may not be able to manage their patients' health records as effectively as they'd like, and might even continue to rely on a mix of paper and electronic recordkeeping, according to Healthcare IT News. That, in turn, creates potential hurdles, discrepancies and other issues that can hinder care and potentially lead to other issues.

What can be done?
For these reasons, experts recommend smaller health care providers reach out to larger counterparts in their areas and try to work together to formulate a strategy that gets the smaller firms up to speed with modern requirements, the report said. Already, efforts to create these connections are paying off for many health care systems, giving smaller organizations a more effective way to conduct backfile scanning efforts and manage documentation on an ongoing basis.

"Sharing of best practices and elevating quality is the vision," Brian Moreau, director of the Community Connect unit at UnityPoint Health in Des Moines, Iowa, told the site.

Integrating correctly
There is a lot of data that goes into any patient's EHRs, and the ability of any care provider to cultivate the most accurate and up-to-date information will be vital to providing the right kind of care as needed, according to EHR Intelligence. Thus, the ability to continually manage data and ferry it to where it needs to be (on demand) will typically lead to better health outcomes for patients.

Along similar lines, the more data that can be added into EHRs – from health data itself to behavioral and social risks – the better off providers and patients will be when it comes to finding care solutions that work for everyone, the site advised.

With these issues in mind, it's vital that health care providers of any size do more to make sure they're finding the best possible document management solutions as they continue to evolve and grow.