How Electronic Records are Helping Hospices

 

Every part of our lives is impacted by computers. We use computers in many instances and don't even realize it. Computers are responsible for simplifying our lives and make the impossible possible. And the medical industry is just one of many industries that has been made better by computers.

 

For some time now, electronic records have been a medical industry standard. When he was running for president, Barack Obama advocated for a nationwide electronic health records database. However, the hospice industry has been a bit slower to get on board. Hospice is considered to be end-stage care. Sometimes miracles do happen and people leave hospice care. But the large majority of people who enter hospice never leave.

 

The point of hospicesoft is just to make people comfortable so the way patients are treated is much different than what you would find in a hospital or clinic. Medical records aren't as important because hospice care rarely involves more than giving a person enough drugs so that they are not in pain. Electronic records do help to get people better care but they also do more than that. Some of those benefits are listed below. 

 

Using electronic records reduce the cost of care at hospice facilities. Time is money and it takes time to locate documents and other paperwork that has been filed in the traditional way. Although medical history may be irrelevant when a person reaches the end-stage, there are many other relevant documents such as DNR's. Watch a video about medical records here at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo_3qOejQzI.

 

Using hospice documentation are a great way to save space. A long time ago, every important document was kept in a file cabinet. In addition to wasting space, that also wasted money. Spaces had to be rented to keep those files. Errors are also reduced when you store date electronically. Handwriting often causes misunderstandings.

 

Electronic records gives care facilities important data. For example, if a facility is using one of the more popular software programs for hospice electronic records they will be able to see the statistics for their facility as well as the statistics for all facilities using that program. For example, at a glance, they could see that the majority of people pass away during the daytime. Or they could see the similarities between those that do make it out of hospice. There are a variety of statistics they could get when the information is store electronically using a computer program. This information could help them in how they provide care.