WESTERN GOVERNORS UNIVERSITY
Developing Your Electronic Medical Record Skills
Electronic Medical Record Skills
The transition from traditional paper-based recordkeeping in healthcare has led to a more efficient way of capturing, storing, and sharing crucial medical information and patient data. Electronic medical record (EMR) skills allow health professionals to access accurate patient data for informed diagnosis and improved treatment plans.
EMR skills facilitate seamless communication and collaboration among medical professionals involved in a patient's care journey, reducing paperwork and minimizing error. EMR skills can unlock numerous career opportunities such as health information specialists, medical coders, clinical analysts, and more.
This guide covers EMR skills, their importance in the healthcare industry, and how they can benefit your career. We’ll also share insights on how you can acquire and enhance these skills.
What Are EMR Skills?
EMR skills refer to the professional ability to navigate computerized systems that collect and store medical data. These skills involve entering and retrieving data and understanding how the EMR system integrates with other systems such as billing and pharmacy.
The skills help healthcare team members such as physicians, nurses, and pharmacists to communicate about patient care and treatment while maintaining the privacy and security required to maintain patient confidentiality.
Why Are EMR Skills Important?
EMR skills enhance patient care and support healthcare staff in numerous ways. Through EMR platforms, healthcare providers can communicate, access, update, and share medical records seamlessly as they offer patient care.
Let’s look at the importance of EMRs expertise for medical professionals:
- Accurate documentation: You can accurately document patient information such as medical history and treatments. Proper documentation is critical for providing quality care and reducing medical errors.
- Collaboration among healthcare teams: Collaboration among health teams improves care coordination and faster decision-making. You collaborate with different healthcare professionals by accessing and updating patient information in real time.
- Healthcare analytics: You can retrieve and analyze patient data from which you can identify patterns, evaluate patient outcomes, and make informed decisions to improve treatment processes.
- Patient privacy and security: Understanding and adhering to data privacy is a key component of EMR skills. You can implement access controls and safeguard patient information from unauthorized access to build trust and comply with legal requirements.
What Are the Benefits of Having EMR Skills?
Acquiring EMR skills can increase your career opportunities and put you ahead of your healthcare colleagues in various ways. The medical field continues to embrace digitization and technology-driven solutions, making proficiency in EMRs increasingly valuable.
Below are the benefits of EMR skills and how they can impact your healthcare career.
- Communication among healthcare teams: Proficiency in EMR skills facilitates communication with other healthcare professionals. You can update health records, share critical information, and track patient progress leading to improved teamwork and patient outcomes.
- Personal health management: You can maintain a centralized record of your medical history, diagnosis, medication, allergies, and other important health-related data. You can also track your medication regimen, dosage, and schedules to ensure timely administration. EMR skills will also help you set reminders of upcoming medical appointments and monitor health trends like blood pressure, weight, glucose levels, etc.
- Proactive engagement in healthcare: You can identify patterns in patient data and come up with early intervention or preventative measures. You can also help patients access their medical records, schedule their appointments, and take ownership of their well-being.
- Career advancement: Strong EMR skills can open numerous career opportunities for you in the healthcare industry, such as becoming a health information technician, medical coder, and clinical informatics specialist. You’ll also be sought after for leadership roles, consultancy, and systems implementation projects in health informatics.
- Adaptation to technological advancements: As technology evolves, EMR skills allow a seamless integration into a workflow, promote data-driven decision-making, and improve the quality of care. You can adapt quickly, ensure data security, and enhance quality care by maintaining continuity.
Examples of EMR Skills in the Workplace
EMR skills are utilized in different ways across the healthcare industry. They make communication between various departments easier and promote operational efficiency.
Here are a few practical examples of how you can apply EMR skills in the workplace:
Create and Update Electronic Health Records
Healthcare professionals use EMR skills to input patient information on electronic health records (EHRs). They update demographic details, allergies, medical history, and more to create an accurate patient profile.
Documenting Patient Encounters
Doctors and nurses provide detailed clinical notes after each patient encounter. They capture symptoms, treatments, and follow-up instructions to facilitate effective communication among health professionals.
Facilitate Accurate Medication Management
EMR skills help record and manage accurate medical information such as prescribed medication, dosages, and allergies. Accurate medical records help avoid errors and support the safe administration of drugs.
Share Educational Materials With Patients
Healthcare providers can share electronic brochures, links to online resources, and instructions to help patients understand their conditions, treatments, and preventative measures.
Medical Billing and Coding
Healthcare professionals use EMRs to assign codes and accurately integrate the codes into the billing system. EMR skills also support real-time claim submission, tracking and follow-up to ensure the right billing information is given to patients.
How Can I Use EMR Skills?
You can use EMR skills in various roles in healthcare, including:
- Organize and protect patient medical records: You can organize patient records in medical databases and ensure they’re kept confidential. As a medical records technician, you’ll review patient records for accuracy and completeness and make them accessible to healthcare professionals.
- Medical billing and coding: As a medical biller and coding specialist, you can turn patient charts into codes and submit them to the insurance company. You’ll analyze patient information to make sure that patients receive the best care and that you bill the correct party.
- Train healthcare staff: Healthcare professionals must be able to use healthcare information systems to collect, analyze and manage patient records. As a health information management educator, you can teach other healthcare professionals to navigate systems and devices to improve patient care and collaboration.
- Supervising employees using patient data: Patient medical records must be accessible to healthcare professionals for continued treatment and quality care. As a medical records manager, you can safely maintain patient data and make sure it's available to healthcare providers as needed.
- Monitoring information accuracy and compliance: In the role of an electronic health records analyst, you’ll be responsible for monitoring the quality of health information. You can ensure compliance with internal and industry legal guidelines.
How Can I Learn EMR Skills?
WGU’s Leavitt School of Health offers various degree programs to develop your EMR skills, such as an M.S. in Nursing Informatics, B.S. in Health Information Management, and a B.S. in Health and Human Services. You will learn to:
- Adapt computer skills to maintain accurate electronic medical records (EMRs).
- Apply technology and computer skills to accurately maintain electronic medical records (EMRs).
- Create efficient communication pathways within the electronic medical records (EMRs), while maintaining accurate EMRs.
- Document patient care in an electronic medical record (EMR).
- Identify technology and computer skills to maintain electronic medical records (EMRs).
- Maintain electronic medical records (EMR) in compliance with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations.
- Manage patient data ethically for building trusting relationships between patients and care providers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Electronic medical records (EMRs) are digital versions of paper charts that contain a patient's medical history within a single healthcare organization.
Electronic health records (EHRs), on the other hand, include a broader view of a patient's health information spanning multiple healthcare organizations.
EMR skills ensure accurate patient documentation, efficient collaboration among healthcare teams, data-driven decision-making, and adherence to patient privacy regulations.
These skills enhance patient care, streamline administrative tasks, and open up opportunities for career advancement within the healthcare industry.
Various healthcare roles need you to have EMR skills. These include the roles of doctor, nurse, medical assistant, health information technician, medical coder, clinical analyst, healthcare administrator, and quality improvement specialist.
EMR software includes features such as:
- Patient demographics and medical history storage
- Electronic charting and clinical notes
- Prescription and medication management
- Billing and coding integration
- Interoperability with other healthcare systems
- Reporting and data analytics
- Laboratory and test result tracking
- Appointment scheduling and reminders
- A patient portal for secure communication and engagement
