No time to slow down: How integrated dictation in EMRs helps provider workflow

One of the best ways to get physicians to adopt electronic medical records (EMR) is to ensure entering information in the system doesn’t disrupt their workflow. But for many physicians, sitting at the computer to type in notes during a patient visit is time consuming, causing many to feel that it detracts from the quality of care they provide. The icing on the cake? A recent report from IDC Health Insights shows decreased physician productivity after an EMR implementation due to workflow disruptions.

One of the best ways practices can avoid these pitfalls is to look for EMRs that have integrated dictation capabilities. Many physicians make a voice recording of medical notes for transcription later and have been doing it that way for years. However, with integrated dictation capabilities, physicians are now able to add necessary notes to the EMR using only voice commands while meeting with the patient. This medical speech recognition technology accurately “types” the notes directly into the medical record in real time as they are spoken, rather than hours after the patient’s visit. The ease of adding notes in a manner that is consistent with the physician’s workflow fosters greater adoption and also improves practice efficiency.

Practices can save money in multiple ways by adopting an EMR with HIPAA-compliant dictation capabilities. First, integrated dictation reduces the time and money practices spend to have a doctor’s notes manually transcribed and entered into the patient’s record. Second, it can eliminate the drop in physician productivity that often accompanies EMR implementation, allowing doctors and other clinicians to maintain their case flow and, as a result, preserve their earning power.

Integrated dictation in combination with a cloud-based solution helps serve the needs of a provider who is constantly on the go, whether moving from one care setting to another or from bed to bed during hospital rounds. In most cases, doctors carrying their iPads on rounds can only access a patient’s information as it already exists in the medical record, and they can’t add notes on the fly via their mobile device; however, this too is changing. Today, doctors can access their EMR data via their mobile devices by leveraging a cloud-based solution that allows them to dictate notes and update their EMR in real time, the same as they would in the office.

Whether it is in the office or on the go, integrated dictation capabilities help doctors take their focus away from typing notes into the EMR and put it squarely back to where it belongs: on the patient. The less time a specialist spends typing information into the record, the more time they have to deliver one-to-one, high quality healthcare.

For information regarding Nextech’s talk-to-text mobile dictation solution, NexSpeak, please visit: http://www.nextech.com/mobility