Healthcare providers in search of a high-tech solution that can improve the quality of patient care and minimize the mountain of paperwork doctors face have a new ally in the world of electronic medical records – the SuiteMed Electronic Health Record System.

 

While the concept of electronic medical records isn’t new, SuiteMed’s system is offering new features designed to boost the operating the efficiency of medical offices and enhance patient care quality by improving documentation.

 

Most experts agree the current health system has fallen short in managing chronic conditions. But it’s these areas, SuiteMed officials said, in which patients and healthcare providers can save time and money by implementing a more effective management system such as SuiteMed.

 

Inadequate management of the care plan for patients with chronic disease leads to deterioration of health and escalating costs, the company said. Patients often fail to follow their care plan because they are not taking their medications as prescribed, or are not taking them at all. Patients are have recurring health problems because they often don’t follow other beneficial steps, including testing their blood sugar or checking their blood pressure, SuiteMed officials said.

 

Unlike other electronic medical record systems, SuiteMed also helps track patient health issues, offers health maintenance alerts and eliminates incorrect prescriptions. It includes connectivity to monitor patients’ adherence to care plan regimens. It also monitors critical patient data, including blood sugar scores for diabetics, the use of nebulizer compressors for the COPD, cystic fibrosis and asthma patients, as well as how heart patients are adhering to their medication regimens.

 

This monitoring capability lets doctors better manage patient outcomes and intervene when necessary before a medical problem arises, company officials said.

 

For example, ALR Technologies' Health-E-Connect disease management monitoring system is used to monitor patients. The system can help patients stay on their care plan and alert health professionals when they are not. Based on industry studies, SuiteMed officials said about $100 billion in medical costs could be saved each year if the millions of people in the U.S. who suffer from diabetes, COPD and heart disease adhered to their healthcare plans.

Amy Tierney is a Web editor for TMCnet, covering business communications Her areas of focus include conferencing, SIP, Fax over IP, unified communications and telepresence. Amy also writes about education and healthcare technology, overseeing production of e-Newsletters on those topics as well as communications solutions and UC. To read more of Amy's articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Amy Tierney