EMRs, PHRs, HIE necessary to support

Without EMRs, PHRs and health information exchange, the patient-centered medical home may not be bound to fail, but it certainly is difficult to establish and maintain. “IT is really the key to supporting the doctor/patient relationship and making it more efficient, safer and more effective,” Dr. Paul Grundy, president of the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative, tells Health Data Management. The Washington-based organization advocates the medical home, under which a primary-care physician manages and coordinates care on behalf of patients, with an eye toward prevention and management of chronic diseases.

It may be a challenge to implement the medical-home model under current reimbursement systems, but until payers start rewarding physicians for keeping patients healthy, IT may be the best avenue. EMRs with clinical decision support, PHRs that help patients monitor their own conditions and health information exchange to support care coordination all can help establish a team approach to care and treatment, HDM reports.

“This is simply about restructuring the way healthcare is delivered to catch the efficiency of technology,” adds Grundy, who also is director of heathcare transformation at IBM.

EMR vs. EHR

According to this report: The National Alliance for Health Information Technology Report to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology on Defining Key Health Information Technology Terms, there is a distinction between EMR (electronic medical record) and EHR (electronic health record). I don’t think that most people will argue that PHR (personal health record) is its own entity. However, there’s a debate out there as to whether EMR should be interchangeable with EHR.

Although EMR and EHR are very familiar terms, there are some distinct differences between these two terms. Let me bold those differences:

Electronic Medical Record (EMR)

An electronic record of health-related information on an individual that can be created, gathered, managed, and consulted by authorized clinicians and staff within one health care organization.

Electronic Health Record (EHR)

An electronic record of health-related information on an individual that conforms to nationally recognized interoperability standards and that can be created, managed, and consulted by authorized clinicians and staff across more than one health care organization.

OK, for the sake of completeness, I’ll throw in this definition as well: