Better Results for Your Employees When Caregivers are Connected
Sep 25, 2015
This is the second in a series of digital health posts. Read the first one — and be sure to check back for other articles coming soon.
A Look at True Connectivity in Health Care
When doctors, pharmacists, and specialists are connected to the same electronic health record (EHR) system, your employees can expect better health outcomes. Patient information is in one place, helping caregivers make better decisions. For example, a pharmacist looking for a patient’s medication allergies in the EHR database would be able to remind that same patient that it’s time to schedule a cancer screening.
The ability to share health information in real time gives everyone connected to the system — doctors, specialists, nurses, even administrative staff — the opportunity to promote preventive care and make better treatment decisions.
This connectedness extends beyond the medical office. Your employees with Kaiser Permanente coverage can email their doctor’s office using their computer, tablet, or smartphone — helping them avoid unnecessary office visits and time away from work.* That’s real value you can see and feel every day at your workplace — and in the faces of your employees. Instead of spending their days preoccupied with health care issues, they can focus on the things that matter most: family, work, and personal time.
The difference between connected and disconnected health care
In integrated systems like Kaiser Permanente’s, having a single shared electronic health record system makes it easier to connect care providers and patients to their health information. Imagine if our more than 600 medical offices and 38 hospitals were split up into different provider or hospital networks. Each network would have a separate — and more than likely incompatible — EHR system. Smaller physician practices might even still be using paper records. Information flow would be slow, possibly incomplete, or even worse, inaccurate.
Innovation that scales with growth
Our electronic health record system makes it possible to continuously deliver high-quality care in new, more efficient ways. As telemedicine and mobile applications continue to grow, the need for connected health information will be even more important. We’re leading the way in these areas as well, and we’ll cover them in future articles.
Hear first-hand how our doctors feel that our EMR system allows them to deliver better care.
