A List Of Must-Have EMR Features

When a doctor tells you what features they believe need to be in an EMR, it’s worth a listen. And when that doctor has personally managed the ongoing development of their own EMR, I find their ideas to be even more interesting. Such informed recommendations are just what Hayward Zwerling, MD, has to offer. Zwerling is a practicing physician, and also the creator of the ComChart ambulatory EMR, which he launched in 1990 and kept on the market until 2015. Zwerling recently published a list of features which, he argues, should be in virtually every EMR. Below, here’s a sampling of his suggestions: Lab features: Provide a button displaying all abnormal lab results, and make the resulting list sortable by test name, test date or any other available parameter. Allow the physician to display any subset of the patient’s lab results, and offer an option to omit individual results and resort the displayed data. Also, allow doctors to export the data in cvs or Excel format. Permit doctors to create lab test charts on the fly, including any combination of tests from the patient’s existing lab work. In addition, make it possible to incorporate this chart into a Progress Note approved up to chart for the patient. Make it easy for the doctor to create an association between incoming test results and specific medicines. (For example, if a cholesterol test result appears, include the name of any statin the patient currently takes.) And make it possible to create lab charts which in...
Source: EMR and HIPAA - Category: Information Technology Authors: Tags: Digital Health Electronic Health Record Electronic Medical Record EMR Healthcare HealthCare IT ComChart EMR Features Hayward Zwerling Laboratory Testing MD Progress Notes The Health Care Blog Source Type: blogs