The role of EHRs in measuring the quality of health
Over the years, technology and expertise in the medical field has increased significantly. There are more investigative and treatment options available. As a result, most chronic conditions are manageable, and people are living longer. However, the increasing complexity of medical conditions demands a reliable source of information and approaches in the medical field. Quality measurement seeks to enable healthcare providers and organizations to assess the quality of services they deliver to the patients using quality measurement tools that have been authenticated in a practice setting. Most of these measures are evidence-based, obtained from clinical researches and expert evaluation.
The latest quality measurement approach in healthcare is the Electronic Health Recording Systems (EHRs). The EHRs technology uses clinical data that has been recorded in real-time to report on various value-added care processes. EHRs provide healthcare providers and other healthcare professionals with information that was not possible with the traditional paper-based reporting systems. EHRs derives information from evidence-based clinical data to measure the quality of healthcare. What makes EHRs a reliable system of measurement and reporting is that it provides timely, coherent, valid, relevant, and meaningful information to the healthcare team.
Some of the medical-based data generated using the EHR technology, such as the vaccination status and the adherence of a given population, can be used to impact the quality and assessment of healthcare positively. The quality measure is expressed as a conformance rate derived by comparing the available data to a relevant benchmark. For instance, to calculate the conformance rate for a given population, the data prepared can be compared to similar data over the years in the same organization or to similar findings from another organization. For instance, the total number of patients that received care in a given healthcare organization can be compared to an already established benchmark. It can be the number that received care in the previous year in the same organization or the number that received care in another similar healthcare organization. Good examples of such metrics include the number of cancer patients that received screening, new diabetes cases, number of infections, or the total number of clinics in a given geographical location.
The shift towards EHR-based measurement and reporting demands a significant amount of healthcare resources, but when used correctly, the benefits are worth it. The EHR quality measurements are clinically relevant, accurate, and very beneficial to all parties, including the physicians and patients. Through EHR-based reporting, new measurement capabilities can be achieved. It allows medical professionals to access information and resources that can be used to evaluate the quality of care and also develop appropriate approaches to improve patient outcomes.
