One of the significant reasons that healthcare practices resist implementing electronic health record (EHR) software is the belief that using it will impact their productivity negatively, reduce the number of patients they see, and decrease their revenue. https://eyecareleaders.com/4-ways-a-high-quality-ehr-dashboard-boosts-productivity/
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4 Ways a High-Quality EHR Dashboard Boosts Productivity
1. 4 Ways a High-Quality EHR Dashboard
Boosts Productivity
One of the significant reasons that healthcare practices resist implementing
an electronic health record (EHR) software is the belief that using it will
impact their productivity negatively, reduce the number of patients they see
and decrease their revenue. The truth is that the EHR system that is
designed around an efficient workflow enables physicians to work more
efficiently and makes them more productive. In addition to intuitive user
interface and compelling design, one more aspect that sets one EHR apart
from another is the effectiveness of its dashboard.
But what makes an effective EHR dashboard?
An effective EHR dashboard is the one that displays high-level information
or key performance indicators (KPI) frequently viewed by providers to track
a patient’s health. This information is displayed in real-time, that helps
providers make informed decisions quickly. An ideal dashboard helps
providers, practice managers, and billers identify key areas where they
should be focusing their efforts for maximum return on investment.
Here are some of the metrics an ideal dashboard must display to help
physicians gain transparency into their practice performance:
Appointments: To provide an overview of the number of
patients seen, no shows, cancelled, and rescheduled.
Co-pays: To summarize how many co-pays have been
collected on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis.
Visits: To provide the total number of visits and grouped by
payer types.
Key performance trends: An overview of critical financial
information such as payments, charges, and account
receivables.
How an Effective EHR Dashboard Improves Physician Productivity
Following are four ways an effective EHR dashboard will boost providers’
productivity:
1. By increasing awareness of key metrics that
impact your practice: There are many factors, such
as visit volume, same-day appointments, average
wait times, and no-show rates – that affect your
medical practice’s efficiency and profitability. Most of
2. this information is captured by different individuals
and stored on different machines or systems.
Without a single platform, it would not be easy to
view this information and make informed decisions.
A useful dashboard provides a glance into this
information and allows users to generate reports, just
with a few clicks of the mouse.
2. By displaying user-specific information and not
irrelevant data: When users log into the EHR
software, they should see information specific to their
roles, and not be inundated with unrelated numbers.
Dashboards should instantly provide key information
and analytics to keep the physician informed. For
instance, a physician is more interested in seeing the
number of patients coming in on a day, their co-
payment information, and eligibility data to get an
accurate view of what their day will look like. A
practice manager wants to be able to view open
tasks, patient portal messages that require a
response, or insurance information that requires
updates upon check-in. By displaying all the relevant
information on one screen, a dashboard helps users
stay efficient.
3. By consolidating financial and clinical
information: Providers and practice managers need
a consolidated view of financial and clinical data.
This is where most EHR dashboards fall short as
they include either clinical information or financial
information, but not both on a single platform. A
consolidated view helps users as it reflects the
interconnection between departments and makes it
easier to see what is and isn’t working and make
strategic changes accordingly.
4. By increasing accountability: The only way to
know what works and what does not is by tracking
the progress. By monitoring parameters like patient
satisfaction through the dashboard, decision-makers
can reward providers who are delivering exceptional
care to patients, arrange training for those who
aren’t, and make staffing changes based on patients’
feedback. As the data is presented on the dashboard
in an interactive and visual format, it is possible to
absorb, analyze, and share key points with ease,
3. thus saving time and encouraging cross-
departmental collaboration.
Conclusion
Despite having so many valuable features and offering benefits, an EHR
dashboard is only as useful as the data flowing into it. Assuming the
reliability of information is ensured, a dashboard designed with usability
and efficiency in mind is a boon to physicians. It can help healthcare
practices save time that they can reinvest into delivering quality care.