What To Look For In a Cardiology EMR

One of the specialties that have benefited the most from Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) and Electronic Health Records (EHRs) is cardiology. This is because many customizable specialty-specific EMRs for cardiologists contain features that help transform the clinical operations of their practice.

General features: Moreover, integration with Practice Management (PM) systems for billing, an integrated patient portal module to engage existing patients, and bi-direction interface with labs allow for better coordination and more efficiency.

When looking for an Cardiology EMR, ensure that the system contains these general features to begin with. Additionally, here are the cardiology-specific features that your system must have:

Clinical documentation tools: The provision for custom reports in addition to a large number of cardiology-specific procedure and exam reports must be present in your system. CAD, Chest Pain, Angina and CHF are some examples of such reports that you will be utilizing on a day-to-day basis. Such provisions for clinical documentation will save you a lot of time and effort as you’ll simply need to fill in readily available procedure specific reports, and the chances of errors and missed entries will exponentially decrease.

Cardiology planning capability: Your system must also contain single-click diagnosis specific order sets to immediately begin procedure planning and for ordering labs. Confirm with your EHR Vendor if they will be automatically attached to the provider notes; as this will avoid duplicitous entries.   

Integrated EKG system: Another vital feature that any EMR must contain in today’s advanced health IT industry is that of an integrated EKG module. Such a module will help digitize EKG attributes, information and results directly onto the system creating a comprehensive patient record which includes all the stats, data and reports the clinical process requires.   

Patient education module: And finally, in addition to engaging the patients, a Patient Portal can be used as an educational tool. Heart patients are more likely to view educational documentation related to tests, treatment plans and procedures for their care; thus such a medium could help deliver better care.

Selecting the ideal cardiology EMR for our practice can be a strenuous process, but following these guidelines will surely simplify this process for you. 

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