How To Maintain Patient Records?

Patient records are of great importance. If you run a hospital, ensure your hospital takes the patient record seriously. You ask why? When a patient is admitted to a hospital for treatment, the doctor initially does a thorough checkup and then is asked to go through all prescribed tests. Based on the reports, the doctor prescribes medicines.

So a patient is provided with a complete report of his vitals, diagnoses, and medications. If the patient misplaces the report, wouldn't it be troublesome to repeat the process? So if the hospital maintains a patient record, no such problems will ever arise.

Maintaining patient records is a relatively easy task. It just needs proper organisation and careful steps to be taken.

• The first step to maintaining patient records is categorising them into different sections like medical history, current medications, allergies, etc. You can also create sub-sections if you wish to. This way, the records are organised, and it is easy to access them whenever necessary.
• The second important step is to keep your records up to date. With each visit and every test is done, update the patient's file. This helps in understanding the progress of the patient and any changes in medication or diagnosis.
• The third step is maintaining a separate file for all the lab results, scans, etc. This way, reading and understanding the patient's condition is easy.
• The last step is to ensure that the records are safe and secure. Keep them in a certain place, away from prying eyes.

By following these steps, you can easily maintain patient records with accuracy and efficiency. That said, patient records are vital not only for the hospital but also for the patient himself. It is a great way to keep track of the patient's medical history and progress. So make sure your hospital takes patient records seriously!

Benefits of Maintaining Patient Records

We know how important patient records are, but if you still need convincing, then take a look at its benefits to get persuaded entirely.

• Patient medical records will ensure that doctors' time is well-spent by repeating the same process.
• It will guide the patients' recovery by notifying them of regular follow-up checkups.
• It also helps the hospital's administration desk to keep the patient's billing track in times of need.
• Once diagnosed, some diseases are for the entire life, such as diabetes, hypertension, etc. But such diseases can also be cured with proper medications, treatments, care, and efforts. So patient records help doctors to guide the patient in the appropriate path and cure these diseases.
• If a patient's health record is present, then a doctor can analyse their conditions beforehand and suggest treatment ways with as minimal risk as possible for them in particular.
• It can also be beneficial from the view of health research as it will help to study different ailments and how they behave to come up with better and less risky solutions.

Methods for Efficiently Tracking & Maintaining Patient Record

How to maintain patient records? This section discusses in detail how to maintain and track patient forms. Patient records are beneficial in many ways. But now, even if we are convinced, we have yet to learn how to maintain the patient record in the first place. Wouldn't it be a hectic job to do?

The answer is no because efficient ways to track and maintain patient records exist. So now, let's look at the different efficient ways of monitoring and maintaining patient records.

• Arrange and combine the Patient Records.
  Let's start simply by just taking in the details of the patient. Once you have taken the patient's information, you prepare a digital report with their details, such as name, phone number, address, etc.
  But the most important thing you will get is a unique id for all your patients. This way, you will always be clear while searching records for a particular patient, and it will be easily searched just by entering the id in the search menu.
• Electronic Preparation of Prescriptions
  Once the administration desk job is done, the doctor handles the second stage. Here it is the responsibility of the doctor to do a checkup. So, doctors will enter all the relevant data such as vitals, diagnoses, tests to be done, and medication to take.
  Every time patients consult a doctor, their prescriptions will be stored electronically, making them safe, protected, and available in times of need.
• Store the patient records on the Cloud System.
  Lastly, if you are storing it on a hard disk, then there is a high probability of losing the data. One should prefer using patient records software and/or cloud systems to store patient records. This is because there will be piles of records, and you will require physical storage save all of the hard disks.
  But in the case of the cloud system, there is no need for physical storage. Only one system will take up all the workload. Some other good things about storing patient records on the cloud system are that it is completely protected from any foreign invasion and the risk of data theft.
  Then patient records can be easily shared with just one click, i.e., sharing the access. So it comes in handy in times of emergencies. Thus, install a central system with cloud storage for your healthcare's patient record system.

Conclusion

Each life is valuable, and nobody should play with any life as every human has been blessed with only one life. So to protect this life, the Health industry is pushing itself every day to gather something valuable which will help develop the healthcare Infrastructure.
So patient electronic health records are such one thing that helps doctors every day, every minute, to save as many lives as possible. Here, even a milli-second matter and patient records help to do so by providing the patient's detailed history in a brief manner.

FAQs

Is there any easy way to prepare the patient record?

Yes, there are two different systems to support this movement, i.e., EMR (Electronic Medical Record) and EHR (Electronic Health Record). These will help you in preparing patient records and that too in an efficient way.

What is the guarantee that Patient records will remain safe?

People must have such doubts, and it is very natural to have such doubts in the digital stage, where data is wealth and power. But there is a way to keep it protected and private.

It can be done just by locking the record and allowing access only to the person who requires it or just keeping it to yourself.

How much will a patient cost get their patient's record?

Patient records are completely free of cost. There is no additional charge for patient records. It is covered in all the charges taken.

Can we attach X-rays to the Patient Record?

Of course, X-rays or any other test, such as UV tests, can also be attached to the Patient record if it is relevant to the diagnosed disease and its treatment.

Is there anything called family Patient records, and can I get one?

Yes, there are family patient records where the entire family's data is gathered together in one place, and also, if you wish to get one, you can ask for it. It can help in medical research on different genetic diseases.