Quality and cost-effective patient care is something that all medical facilities strive to achieve. As technology changes, healthcare providers have more ways to reach out to their patients and keep them informed on their personal health. Electronic medical records (EMRs) and e-prescribing software are just two examples of new innovations designed to improve the interactions between doctors and patients.
When organizations in the healthcare industry partner with a third-party answering service, it can ensure that 24/7, an individual can reach a representative through whatever means of communication is most convenient. Not only does this union assist patients, but it also offers caregivers a secure database and scheduling system, ensuring that they can keep individuals informed.
According to a recent survey by KLAS Research, some clinical decision support tools do not integrate well with their EHR systems, and it makes it difficult to offer quality care. The research showed that about half of the 249 providers interviewed used third-party order sets for reference only because they couldn’t integrate the pre-built order sets with their EHRs.
Specifically, neither drug database vendors nor EHR vendors are doing a good job of making medication alerts useful to physicians, the organizations said in the survey.
“Most providers were only moderately successful in managing medication alerts,” the report said. “Making meaningful changes to drug alerts at a vendor level has been a challenge, and providers would like more control to customize alerts.”
With providers wanting the ability to ensure quality patient care through two-way communication, a live answering service is greatly beneficial. Especially as technology grows more prevalent in healthcare, having online customer services available, along with a 24/7 phone system, allows doctors to guarantee that patients can have their questions answered.
