Use of EMR Software, Even in Rural India
International Reach
It can be difficult to find adequate health care in farther corners of the globe. Many people living in urban areas, within major cities or the surrounding suburbs, accept medical care as a fact of life. Hospitals are expected to be professional and easily-accessible. Patients expect ambulances to arrive quickly. The ambulance crew is always knowledgeable, and the vehicle is equipped with basic life-preserving necessities. This is not the case for everyone. There are places in America where hospitals received very low grades for efficiency and other basics, such as cleanliness. The Leapfrog Group recently established a Hospital Safety Score which is used to rate hospitals on their vital factors. Surprisingly, even metro and well-known hospitals are capable of receiving a B or a C on the Leapfrog Safety Scale.
Upgrades for Better Health Care
One can only imagine the difficulties faced by a medical facility in the small village of Chhattisgarh, India. Complications arise with lack of technology, locality, and funding. This is where the Jan Swasthya Sahyog (JSS) faction of The People’s Health Support Group steps in. The People’s Health Support Group was founded by an assembly of New Delhi doctors from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. The doctors share a common dream: to improve the quality and accessibility of health care for under-serviced populations in India. Starting in September of 2012, the JSS medical facilities began using EMR software to supplement the efforts of these devoted doctors. The EMR software is being incorporated into daily medical practices during a 5-stage process. Each module allows for reasonable training time with the software. A wide variety of the staff, including volunteers, nurses, and physicians, will need to understand different components within the software.
Among many benefits, EMR software will pave the way to better rural patient care through features such as:
- Built on a platform that is prepared for future needs and subsequent updates
- Alternative to paper records
- Alternative to x-rays, which may degrade in quality over time
- All digital information is stored in a safe, encrypted server
- Offers speech processing capabilities, including voice recognition
- Provides support for doctors to make faster medical decisions, such as drug-drug interactions, drug allergy warnings, and immunizations
- Supplements medical care with easier communication, medication alerts, appointment reminders, and more
Future of Health Care
JSS is scheduled to continue with the 5 phases of its pilot project through April 2013. If everything goes well, additional learning modules may be implemented. The EMR software may then extend to other areas in need of high-quality medical care at a low cost. Other interested health care organizations include facilities located in Nepal, Kenya, and Armenia, but interest circumnavigates the globe.
If it is possible for rural locations in India to experience great success with EMR software, isn’t it time your health care organization upgraded as well?
For informational purposes only.
"My husband and I have a small practice but we were looking for a medical billing company to consult us. We originally started with a local company with some satisfaction. However, our biggest problem was that they wanted us to change our existing EMR to software that they worked with. Quest National Services worked with our existing software so that we didn’t have to make expensive changes to our infrastructure. That saved us a lot of time and headache. I would definitely say that was one of the main reasons for why we switched and why we continue to work with Quest. As a small practice, they helped us without draining our resources."
Adriana C.
