Enterprise Content Management in Today’s Hospitals
Posted Sep 03 2010 7:30am
Enterprise Content management (ECM) in hospitals refers to the tools and strategies used to obtain, organize, store and make the necessary data and information pertaining to patients available as a single unit to all qualified internal staff, as well as external consulting physicians. ECM combines paper records, charts, insurance papers, photos, audio and video files for one patient to be viewed as a single unit online.
Need for ECM in Hospitals
Hospitals need to store thousands of patient records each day and are constantly challenged by the need for more storage space. Moreover, thousands of dollars are spent each year on the staff required to maintain this data and retrieve it from paper files stacked in storage rooms when needed. This slows down the efficiency and workings in hospitals, not to mention the time taken away for treatment of patients. Needless to say, a patients’ health is also at stake, as paper records strewn in different departments of the hospital can make it difficult for doctors to access the latest reports in an emergency.
There is a need for an efficient system to integrate all records pertaining to a single patient that can be easily accessed in one location. This is available to hospitals today in the shape of Enterprise Content Management.
Advantages of ECM
ECM integrates as part of the EMR. Since the EMR will hold most of the patient information, you want your ECM system to seamlessly integrate to show old paper (and sometimes new paper) from your patients.
ECM organizes all external records of patients obtained during different visits sand compiles it with the rest of their results and stores it in one unit. So you do not need to carry the test results obtained from another hospital or laboratory each time you visit the hospital.
All the paperwork form different departments are integrated and accessible in the system at the same time, and save the patient and staff the hassle of collecting the paperwork from different departments when getting any treatment done.
Since the file is stored online, it can be accessed from any computer with a running internet connection (and typically directly from the EMR).
Patient records can be updated easily from time to time, and the latest reports are made available to the doctor in case of an emergency procedure.
With this integrated system, unnecessary paperwork can be avoided. This saves the expenses pertaining to storing, maintaining, and retrieving paperwork in hospitals.
With this increased efficiency, there is less chance of losing records or assigning a wrong diagnosis; as such, more hospitals are integrating this system in their database.
Components of ECM
In order to integrate various forms of data into the system, ECM makes use of different technologies and components. These include the technologies required for the capture or input of data into the system, managing the data and ensuring its secure and smooth retrieval, storing data in file systems, content management systems and databases, preserving long term data in archives, and delivering the data from various compartments, which is also known as the output of data.
Security technologies are other important components of ECMs, as the data stored in these files are allowed to be accessed and viewed by authorized personnel only. Electronic signatures are thus used to authenticate the identity and integrity of the user and data at the various stages of capturing and retrieving the data.
Enterprise Content management (ECM) in hospitals refers to the tools and strategies used to obtain, organize, store and make the necessary data and information pertaining to patients available as a single unit to all qualified internal staff, as well as external consulting physicians. ECM combines paper records, charts, insurance papers, photos, audio and video files for one patient to be viewed as a single unit online.
Need for ECM in Hospitals
Hospitals need to store thousands of patient records each day and are constantly challenged by the need for more storage space. Moreover, thousands of dollars are spent each year on the staff required to maintain this data and retrieve it from paper files stacked in storage rooms when needed. This slows down the efficiency and workings in hospitals, not to mention the time taken away for treatment of patients. Needless to say, a patients’ health is also at stake, as paper records strewn in different departments of the hospital can make it difficult for doctors to access the latest reports in an emergency.
There is a need for an efficient system to integrate all records pertaining to a single patient that can be easily accessed in one location. This is available to hospitals today in the shape of Enterprise Content Management.
Advantages of ECM
Components of ECM
In order to integrate various forms of data into the system, ECM makes use of different technologies and components. These include the technologies required for the capture or input of data into the system, managing the data and ensuring its secure and smooth retrieval, storing data in file systems, content management systems and databases, preserving long term data in archives, and delivering the data from various compartments, which is also known as the output of data.
Security technologies are other important components of ECMs, as the data stored in these files are allowed to be accessed and viewed by authorized personnel only. Electronic signatures are thus used to authenticate the identity and integrity of the user and data at the various stages of capturing and retrieving the data.