Technology has been constantly improving our lives, but it’s ironic that out of all of the business and industries that are embracing technology, medical practices have been perhaps the slowest out of them all to adopt computers into their businesses. While hospitals are sporting the latest and greatest technology, general practitioners are seriously lacking behind and it’s causing a lot of stress and problems for the patients.
Medical practices are in need of a serious upgrade when it comes to their technology. Using paper records in this day and age for such a sensitive business is unacceptable, and with the ease and availability of electronic devices, there’s no excuse for employees that work in medical practices to not understand how to use a computer for the sake of efficiency.
Medical software and hardware
Something that should have been implemented across all medical practices is electronic records and easy-to-use software to access and edit those records. EHR (Electronic Health Record) software is available and now and many top hospitals and medical practices are making use of it. However, there are still many around the world that haven’t fully adopted EHR systems. Not only does this type of software free up time for the doctors to get more one-on-one time with their patients, it also means there are fewer chances for human error.
There are also Practice Management Systems (PMS) that give medical practices all the tools they need to manage hundreds and thousands of employees. It helps to speed up financial and clinical tasks, such as requesting payment for services or even instantly printing out prescriptions without needing to visit a doctor, thus cutting out delays and ensuring that medical practices get to see more patients more often.
In addition to software, the hardware is also very important. For instance, medical monitors are very important to doctors because they are made specifically to show images from scans and to help diagnose patients. These LCD screens are incredibly accurate and durable, making them far better than typical cheap LCD screens that most practices use due to their low budget. Sadly, having cheap inaccurate monitors can lead to failures which cause delays, and in a worst-case scenario, it could even lead to a misdiagnosis.
SourceOffering portability to doctors
Portable hardware is perhaps the most promising technology to be added into a doctor’s arsenal. The ability to take medical diagnosis tools and feed the results electronically into a laptop or mobile phone is going to be one of the most useful breakthroughs to be accepted among modern medical practices. This opens up the possibility for doctors to attend people’s homes and offer premium care services. They can simply pack everything in their bags and use their laptop to do scans, read results and give instant feedback as opposed to home visits that only end with a bit of advice and perhaps a prescription.
One of the biggest issues with medical practices today is the inconvenience of phoning up and then not getting an appointment instantly. Patients want instant advice and the only way to deliver that is to utilise technology.
