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More on Paperless Healthcare Records
[By Patrick McTosh]
The movement towards paperless healthcare is growing. Every year, more and more health professionals are beginning to implement EMRs and EHRs as a way to turn their file cabinets into data on a hard drive. While EHRs help the problems of storing paper, they do not create documents that can be legally, securely and efficiently shared with third parties and patients during day to day activities.
These issues can be addressed by implementing an electronic signature solution. These types of solutions allow professions to create documents for physician orders, prescriptions, patient admissions, consent forms and other important medical documents in a timely and relatively paper free manner.
Verify EHR or EMR Integration
It’s important to ensure that whatever electronic signature software is compatible with your current EHR and EMR software. While most e-signature solution providers claim they have specialized services for healthcare organization, it’s best to confirm with a phone call or email that they have experience integrating their services with the EMR that is currently in use.
Verify Local Legislation & Signature Guidelines
Hospital accreditors have already recognized e-signatures as equivalent to paper signatures. However, it’s always important to verify federal and state regulations regarding e-prescriptions and electronic signatures.
For example, the latest DEA regulations on electronic prescriptions require digital signatures to have at least a biometric authentication. In addition, some states have not adopted the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act and therefore have difference laws pertaining to the legality of e-signatures.
Most e-signature providers specializing in healthcare tend to be on top of these things because better legal compliance is one of the benefits of e-signatures as a whole, but it’s always better do double check.
Ensure It’s Human Error Proof
Many e-signature solutions attempt to reduce the risk of human error due to lost, damage or incorrectly completed forms which can cause significant delays. As most e-signature software will actually guide the signer through the complete process ensuring that the document meets necessary requirements before sealing the document with a tamper-evident digital seal.
Assessment
However, not all providers have such precautions against human errors, but it is definitely a must in the healthcare industry.
Conclusion
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Filed under: Information Technology | Tagged: DEA, E-Signature Solutions, eHR, eMR, Paperless Healthcare Records, Patrick McTosh, Uniform Electronic Transactions Act | 1 Comment »
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