EHRs are helping hospitals and health systems across the country manage surging care requests and coordinate virtual visits during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council.
In an April 13 op-ed published by Madison.com, Mr. Still wrote that caregivers’ perceptions of EHRs may be shifting from burdensome to an asset as they maneuver rapid increases in COVID-19 patient volumes.
EHRs, coupled with online tools such as telemedicine, help hospitals analyze COVID-19 testing trends and manage critical care cases, according to Mr. Still. While EHRs can’t process COVID-19 tests, they can help identify trends including geographic hot spots where testing is increasing.
In Wisconsin, home to Verona-based EHR giant Epic’s headquarters, several health systems were early adopters of EHRs, Mr. Still wrote. Because of this, Wisconsin “runs anywhere from a few percentage points to 10 percentage points ahead of national averages for [EHR] adoption by patients, office physicians and hospitals,” he added.
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