Upon a patient’s discharge from a hospital, the care team faxed a 40-page transition-of-care document to the patient’s cardiologist. But the fax sat in a bin inside the cardiologist’s office for three days before being manually entered into the provider’s electronic health record (EHR). During that time, no one realized that the patient had been prescribed a new high-risk medication, creating a potentially dangerous gap in care.

This hypothetical scenario reflects care coordination breakdowns that can happen due to disconnected technology and manual processes. Let’s review how your healthcare organization can reduce these risks and improve patient outcomes with solutions that integrate with your EHR and create automated workflows.

What is Care Coordination?

Care coordination involves organizing care throughout each step of a patient’s journey. All patients can benefit from highly coordinated care, but it’s especially important for people with complex health conditions. A patient with diabetes, for example, may see multiple providers for ongoing care, including:

• A primary care doctor for their general health
• An endocrinologist for diabetes management
• A podiatrist for foot ulcer treatment
• A nutritionist for meal planning guidance

Sharing information securely among providers improves health outcomes. Results from a recent study show that heart failure patients receiving higher levels of care coordination had 10% lower odds of readmission, 17% lower risk of mortality, and a 16% reduction in overall healthcare costs.

When care coordination is fragmented, however, it leads to redundant testing, delayed diagnoses, and potential medication errors, raising healthcare costs and eroding the quality of care. 

Common Challenges With Care Coordination

Care coordination can fall short due to systemic barriers that limit access to information and slow organizational workflows to a crawl. Three common care coordination pitfalls include:

Siloed Systems That Prevent Seamless Information Exchange

Patients’ protected health information (PHI) typically lives within multiple systems, including an EHR, patient portals, fax machines, and practice management systems. Systems that aren’t properly integrated will need some type of manual intervention in order to share patient information, leading to re-keying and increasing the risk for errors. This problem is then exacerbated as practices attempt to share data with referring providers who also use different systems.

The dangers of siloed systems: Imagine a scenario where a primary care provider (PCP) refers a patient to a cardiologist for evaluation of worsening shortness of breath. The PCP’s office uses paper fax to send the referral, clinical notes, and lab results to the cardiologist. However, due to staffing shortages, the cardiologist’s office can’t enter the information until two days later. By the time the patient arrives for their appointment, the cardiologist has only a brief referral note in their EHR and not the updated lab results or medication history. As a result, the cardiologist repeats tests that were already done.

Manual Processes That Lead to Inefficiencies and Delays

Many healthcare organizations still rely on manual tasks such as printing, scanning, and physical faxing. This hands-on work consumes considerable time for providers and staff. It also increases the risk for human errors and elongates the time it takes to share information with other providers.

The dangers of manual processes: Let’s say a GI clinic receives a faxed referral from a PCP for a patient experiencing severe abdominal pain. A clinical staff member manually entered the wrong medication dose (10 mg of a blood thinner instead of the prescribed 1.0) into the EHR. Unaware of the error, the gastroenterologist delays an urgent diagnostic procedure due to the perceived elevated risk of bleeding.

Compliance Concerns With Patient Data Sharing

Your patients’ PHI is only as safe as the systems in which it lives and how it travels between those systems. If your solutions don’t communicate with one another, providers and staff may try to take shortcuts, opening the door for potential HIPAA violations. These types of compliance breaches expose your patients’ private information and can create significant monetary penalties from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR).

The dangers of fragmented care: Consider a situation where an orthopedic surgeon attempts to share a care plan with a referring physician via paper fax, but the fax will not transmit. Frustrated, the provider sends the care plan through the physician’s personal email account instead of the practice email. The surgeon mistakenly types in the wrong email address, triggering a HIPAA violation.

How Technology Improves Care Coordination

Modern, cloud-based solutions help providers and staff exchange data securely inside and outside their organizations, enabling the type of highly coordinated care patients deserve. Your practice can start busting through the barriers to care coordination with solutions that embrace these three key principles:

1. EHR Interoperability and Secure Information Exchange

Interoperability allows for the secure exchange of information like treatment summaries and imaging reports across different EHR systems during transitions of care. By choosing interoperable solutions, providers receive both the data and the clinical context they need to make more informed diagnoses.

How it enhances care coordination: A regional health network integrates its EHR with a local orthopedic group using a secure document exchange platform. Now, care teams can access treatment plans and progress notes in real time, reducing hospital readmissions through improved patient adherence with follow-up care plans.

2. Automated Administrative Workflows With Cloud Faxing and AI

Clunky workflows frustrate practice staff and increase feelings of burnout among providers. In contrast, automated workflows reduce administrative burdens and support coordinated care. Cloud-based online faxing solutions turn formerly paper-based processes into streamlined workflows, giving providers immediate access to vital healthcare information. AI can convert medical faxes into structured data and route them to the correct patient record within your EHR.

How it enhances care coordination: A multi-specialty clinic adopts an AI-powered cloud fax solution to extract key patient data from inbound referrals. What once took 15 minutes of staff time per fax now takes less than a minute, improving productivity and accelerating patient intake.

3. Smoother Data Transfer Backed by FHIR and HL7

Think of FHIR and HL7 as the common language of healthcare. These universal data sharing frameworks allow providers to share information digitally across care sites in real time using application programming interfaces (APIs). The results: faster diagnoses, quicker treatment, and improved care across venues, from urgent cares and emergency rooms to medical practices and behavioral health centers.

How it enhances care coordination: Envision a world where an accountable care organization uses FHIR-based APIs to integrate patient data from multiple providers into a centralized platform. The organizer’s care coordinators can now manage chronic disease interventions and provide social services with greater precision, improving population health outcomes.

Best Practices for Implementing Care Coordination Software

Healthcare organizations must select solutions that enhance existing staff workflows, not disrupt them. A few ways to find the right choice for your practice:

Assess Your Current Care Coordination Capabilities

First, identify any existing care coordination gaps within your organization. Pay close attention to any older, legacy technology systems. Often, these systems are difficult to integrate.

In addition to reviewing your practice’s tech stack, you should:

• Map out key touchpoints between internal departments and external parties, including referring providers and care facilities.
• Look for any manual processes, such as manual data entry or physical staffing, that are ripe for automation.
• Review feedback from patient reviews. Often, your patients will be the first ones to point out any care coordination missteps.

Once you thoroughly understand your organization’s current processes and technology, you can develop a plan to enhance your care coordination capabilities.

Evaluate Cloud-Based Solutions for Seamless, Secure Communication

Cloud-based solutions offer APIs for quick integration. But not all cloud-based tools are alike. To achieve care coordination at scale, seek solutions built specifically for healthcare. Prioritize tools that use the HL7 and FHIR frameworks. Bonus points if your solutions comply with the HITRUST Common Security Framework (CSF), the “gold standard” for cybersecurity and data protection.

Consensus Cloud Solutions offers a suite of cloud-based, EHR-interoperable tools designed to improve care coordination across your entire organization, including:

• eFax Corporate® enables secure, scalable cloud faxing that integrates directly with your existing EHR, so providers and staff can send digital faxes without interrupting their workflows. eFax Corporate encrypts PHI both inside your EHR and while it’s being sent to other providers and facilities. It’s also fully HIPAA compliant and carries HITRUST certification.
• Clarity Clinical Documentation™ minimizes manual data entry, freeing staff from tedious paperwork. Clarity CD routes medical faxes directly to the appropriate patient record in your EHR. Then, using AI and natural language processing (NLP), it extracts key patient demographics from the fax and converts them into a structured Continuity of Care document that’s easy to share with other providers.
• eFax Unite™ is designed specifically to eliminate fragmented communication and remove inefficient workflows. An interoperability platform, eFax Unite lets you share files, connect with millions of providers, execute electronic signatures, and even send Direct Secure Messages to post-acute facilities, specialty practices, labs, hospitals, and other care partners.

Here’s how all three of these solutions could work together to help providers communicate effectively and advocate for their patients:

A PCP refers a patient to a pulmonologist. The referral — including handwritten notes, lab results, and imaging reports — is faxed digitally to the pulmonologist’s inbox using eFax Corporate. At the pulmonology office, the care team uses Clarity Clinical Documentation to extract key data from the digital fax, such as diagnosis codes and medications, and turns it into a structured document that lives within the practice’s EHR. Even though the two practices use different EHRs, they can share patient information securely through a Health Information Exchange (HIE) using Direct Secure Messaging within eFax Unite.

Care Coordination Starts With Tighter Connections

Improving care coordination is a team sport, and it takes cooperation from multiple parties within the healthcare ecosystem. With cloud faxing and AI-enabled tools, your organization can set an example by eliminating manual processes, sharing information securely, and enhancing the quality of care you deliver for your patients.

Learn more about how interoperable tools like eFax Corporate, Clarity Clinical Documentation, and eFax Unite can help your organization deliver more connected care without overhauling your entire tech stack.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does care coordination software improve patient outcomes?

Care coordination software streamlines communication and information sharing between healthcare providers. Providers can collaborate on treatment plans and patient follow-ups using accurate, real-time data. Features like EHR interoperability, cloud faxing, Direct Secure Messaging, and AI-powered data extraction help ensure the right provider receives the right information at the right time.

What challenges does care coordination software help solve?

A mix of cloud-based care coordination solutions can break down data silos both inside and outside a healthcare organization. They can also eliminate manual fax workflows entirely. For example, AI-powered solutions can extract demographic information from digital faxes and create a structured document inside an organization’s EHR, eliminating re-keying and reducing errors. Care coordination software also helps healthcare organizations remain HIPAA-compliant.

What role do digital faxing and AI play in care coordination?

Digital faxing combined with AI enhances care coordination by bridging the gap between paper-based processes, legacy systems, and modern, cloud-based technology. Tools like eFax Corporate allow providers and staff to send faxes digitally using their existing workflows, saving time and improving patient care. Clarity CD intelligently parses digital faxes using AI and natural language processing (NLP) and routes the information to the appropriate patient record in a standardized format. The benefits include improved accuracy and more time spent on patient care.

Selecting the right electronic medical records (EMR) software can seem daunting for healthcare practice leaders. The solution must be easy to use. It has to keep patient data secure. Most importantly, it must help everyone in your practice — providers, registrars, coders, and billers — do their jobs faster with reliable and accurate data. 

Where to begin? Let’s start by looking at the key buying criteria and explore how Consensus Cloud Solutions can close the gap between the promise of EMR software and the real-world workflows your teams manage every day.

EMR vs. EHR — What’s the Difference?

While they may seem interchangeable, the terms EMR software and electronic health records (EHR) software have different meanings. How can you tell the difference between EHR and EMR?

An EMR transforms paper charts into electronic records stored within the four walls of your practice. It stores all of your patients’ medical histories and treatment plans. However, data within your EMR is typically confined to your practice. If you need to send medication histories or other documentation to referring providers, you may need to use paper faxing or other manual methods.

An EHR, meanwhile, goes one step further. It’s designed for data sharing across multiple providers. This gives referring providers access to your patients’ labs, visit history, and other key information, regardless of where the care was delivered. 

If your practice already has athenaOne® or another EHR, it’s essential to find EMR software that integrates with your EHR and fits within your existing workflows. For example, eFax Corporate® offers an out-of-the-box athenaOne integration that sends digital faxes directly to the patient’s record within the EHR, eliminating manual re-keying while giving clinicians access to critical patient information quickly.

5 Top Considerations When Selecting EMR Software

Because EMR software will impact every aspect of your practice, practices typically devote a lot of time to due diligence. On average, the process takes three-to-six months. The vast majority (92%) of software buyers begin by creating a shortlist of 3-5 vendors, and more than half (59%) end up selecting a vendor from that initial shortlist.

To ensure you get the right vendors on your shortlist, keep these 5 essential considerations top of mind during the evaluation and assessment process.

1. Usability and Workflow Integration

Any new EMR software you choose should make work easier, not harder, for your practice’s providers and staff. Look for solutions that offer:

• High usability, with intuitive navigation that reduces time spent on clinical documentation and increases face time with patients
• Clear visual displays and dashboards that let users quickly find the information they need
• Seamless integration with all of your essential systems, including your:
  • EHR
  • Customer relationship management (CRM) database
  • Enterprise resource planning (ERP) system
  • Document management system (DMS)
  • Billing software
  • Mobile devices

Solutions with built-in application programming interfaces (APIs) make integration simple so your team can get the most out of your new solution and all of their existing digital tools.

Pro tip: Include your providers in the process of selecting and customizing EMR software to ensure it meets their specific needs.

2. Security and Compliance

While HIPAA compliance is table stakes for EMR software, regulations are changing, and practices must keep pace. Newly proposed legislation, for example, aims to modernize the HIPAA Security Rule, addressing technical aspects such as data encryption and multi-factor authentication in an effort to further safeguard patients’ protected health information (PHI). 

Practices can remain ahead of these changes by selecting EMR solutions with strong encryption protocols, including AES 128-bit or higher to protect data at rest and transport layer security (TLS) protocols to protect data in transit. 

Pro tip: For maximum data protection, practices should also prioritize solutions that are HITRUST-certified, the “gold standard” for cybersecurity in healthcare.

3. Interoperability and Data Sharing

Patient care seldom ends at your practice’s front door, which is why data sharing is a crucial consideration for any EMR software. Interoperability empowers providers and staff to exchange data with hospitals, accountable care organizations (ACOs), labs, pharmacies, imaging centers, and other specialists to streamline care and, ultimately, improve outcomes. 

Look for solutions that support two universal data sharing protocols, HL7 and FHIR. Both provide secure, real-time access to data so you can deliver highly coordinated, patient-centered care.

Pro tip: Advance your practice’s value-based care capabilities by integrating eFax Corporate with eFax Unite™. Doing so will allow providers to quickly and securely query Carequality and other health information exchanges (HIEs) for patient information.

4. Cost and ROI Considerations

Make no mistake, EMR software is a significant financial investment. The actual cost will depend on the size of your practice and your specialty. Yet while it’s tempting to select an EMR product based on its sticker price, the total costs of ownership go beyond the initial fee. 

Practices should perform a full cost-benefit analysis that includes the purchase price and intangibles like user licenses, implementation costs, and troubleshooting-related expenses. When calculating the potential return on investment, account for potential revenue growth and operational efficiency, calculating items such as hours of manual work eliminated or documentation time saved.

Pro tip: Cloud-based EMR solutions are cheaper and easier to maintain than older legacy systems. They also give practices access to automatic safety upgrades, removing manual software patches and delivering additional cost savings.

5. Vendor Support and Reputation

A best-in-class EMR solution won’t just deliver excellent functionality. It will also be backed by a trusted vendor that prioritizes ongoing support after the sale. To choose the best vendor, compare online reviews. Scan unbiased third-party review websites like KLAS Research and G2. Ask other practices what they like and don’t like about their current vendors. Then, prepare a list of questions for potential vendor interviews, including:

• How much experience do you have with healthcare practices?
• What is your company’s track record with data security?
• How do you stay on top of evolving regulations?
• What levels of support are included in the contract?
• Are there any additional costs for support services or system upgrades?

These questions will help you evaluate the levels of support you’ll receive and give you a good gauge of each vendor’s reputation.

Pro tip: Ask vendors for case studies and testimonials from other healthcare practices that have implemented their solutions successfully.

How Consensus Cloud Solutions and eFax Corporate Support EMR Workflows

Consensus Cloud Solutions offers multiple interoperable EMR solutions designed to fit within the workflows your healthcare practice uses today, improving clinical efficiency and driving long-term ROI. 

Secure, HIPAA-Compliant Document Exchange

eFax Corporate gives practices a trusted, scalable platform for efficient, compliant digital faxing. The platform meets and exceeds HIPAA regulations, providing round-the-clock data encryption, including TLS encryption for data in transit and AES 256-bit encryption for data in storage. For added security, eFax Corporate can perform digital faxing on a virtual private network (VPN) for digital faxing.

Additionally, eFax Corporate carries HITRUST Common Security Framework (CSF) certification, keeping PHI protected. Plus, multi-layered audit controls support both internal compliance tracking and external audits.

User-Friendly AI-Powered Data Extraction for Structured Records

Handwritten doctor’s notes and paper faxes historically caused barriers for healthcare practices, but AI offers a breakthrough. Clarity CD™ uses AI and natural language processing (NLP) to read and understand the clinical context within referrals, lab reports, and progress notes. This advancement allows practices to automatically extract unstructured data from paper documents.

Clarity CD then populates this unstructured data into a structured, standardized Continuity of Care document that can be shared easily across multiple sites of care, including labs, urgent care centers, surgery centers, and primary care practices. Full EHR integration means structured notes get uploaded directly into your system of choice. Practices report achieving more than 70% efficiency over manual data entry with Clarity CD.

Seamless Interoperability and EHR Integration

One of the biggest time wasters inside a practice happens when colleagues have to toggle through multiple platforms just to talk with providers, patients, and health plans. By integrating eFax Corporate with eFax Unite, practices can easily share critical information with providers without changing workflows or switching solutions.

With eFax Unite, practices can send and receive any patient information using Direct Secure Messaging, which is quickly becoming the preferred communication method between PCPs and specialists. From the same platform, providers can query Carequality or other HIEs for additional patient information. Providers also get access to the National Provider Directory, enabling seamless, interoperable connections with nearly 1 million providers.

EMR Implementation Best Practices

Once your practice has decided to investigate EMR solutions, it’s time to create a strategic implementation plan. Be sure to include these three critical areas:

Planning and Vendor Selection

Outline your practice’s goals, then assemble a cross-functional team (providers, front-desk staff, back-office staff) to lead the selection process. Research vendors and create a shortlist. Then, schedule demos with top vendors so you can assess usability and interoperability firsthand. Remember to prioritize solutions that come highly recommended from peers and other people in the industry whom you trust. eFax Corporate, for example, is proud to be included on G2’s 2025 Best Healthcare Software Products list.

Training and Adoption Strategies

Once you decide on a solution, determine how you want to train your practice’s staff. A phased approach tends to work best for many practices. Provide comprehensive education based on each staff member’s specific role within the practice. Consider designating one or two colleagues as “super users” who can offer peer-to-peer support and serve as the go-to for any troubleshooting needs.

Integration and Long-Term Optimization

Gather continuous feedback from staff to make sure your chosen EMR solution continues to deliver value. Provide EMR training in new employee orientation and implement ongoing refresher training for staff. Perform routine system audits to identify and fix any integration hiccups. Use data analytics to monitor clinical efficiency and outcomes.

EMR Software: A Long-Term Investment in Your Practice’s Health

It takes time and commitment to choose the right EMR software. But once you make the right choice, your practice and its patients will realize the benefits for years to come. Tools like eFax Corporate, eFax Unite, and Clarity CD ensure the highest levels of usability and integration, allowing your providers and staff to continue putting patients first.

Frequently Asked Questions

What key features should healthcare practices look for in EMR software?

Any EMR software a healthcare practice chooses must be easy to use. It must also integrate seamlessly with the practice’s EHR of record and other vital systems, such as its CRM, ERP, DMS, and billing software. Additionally, EMR solutions must be HIPAA compliant and support universal interoperability standards such as HL7 and FHIR. 

How does EMR software support value-based care within healthcare practices?

EMR software empowers healthcare practices to move toward value-based care by enabling interoperability with referring providers and health information exchanges (HIEs). eFax Unite, for example, lets providers query HIEs like Carequality for patient information, improving the coordination of care and reducing the risk of redundant tests or procedures. Integrated EMR and EHR systems also ensure timely access to labs, visit notes, medication lists, and imaging scans, creating stronger preventive care and keeping populations healthier.

What are the top security features to look for in EMR software?

A healthcare practice’s EMR solutions must be flexible so they can adapt to changing regulations, including proposed changes to the HIPAA Security Rule. At a minimum, EMRs should provide TLS encryption for data in transit and AES 256-bit encryption for data at rest. Also, consider platforms like eFax Corporate that are HITRUST-certified.

Alice arrives at Bonobo Healthcare, where Dr. Carol needs her medical history from a local clinic. 

They fax it over. Dr. Carol must do what doctors, nurses, and clinicians do every day: read through these notes and manually enter them into the EHR system before beginning treatment.

This scenario highlights a critical healthcare problem: clinical staff waste valuable time processing unstructured data — faxed notes, handwritten forms, and PDF documents — when they could be treating patients.

Healthcare depends on data, but much remains trapped in non-standardized formats. Despite advances in electronic health records, healthcare organizations still struggle with paper documents and faxes that require manual processing. This:

• Drains resources
• Contributes to staff burnout
• Risks data inaccuracy
• Threatens regulatory compliance
• Potentially harms patient outcomes

AI data extraction can automatically convert unstructured documents into structured, usable data faster, more accurately, and with less staff burden. This transforms healthcare documentation, benefiting patients, providers, and healthcare organizations. In this article, you’ll learn how AI-powered data extraction solutions are revolutionizing healthcare workflows and the tangible benefits they deliver for both clinical staff and patient care. 

The Challenges of Manual Data Extraction in Healthcare

Despite advancements in electronic systems, faxing remains the dominant form of transmitting clinical documentation, with 70% of health organizations still exchanging patient information by fax. Manual processing (printing, reading, typing into EHR) is labor-intensive and slow, creating bottlenecks that delay patient care.

But the problems go way beyond the doctor-patient interaction:

• Human errors and inconsistencies: Manual data entry creates errors — typos in patient information, documents misfiled under the wrong patient, and missed updates. With 70% of physicians struggling to find information in EHRs, they frequently overlook critical data, leading to medical errors and poor care quality.
• Staff burnout and workforce shortage: Nearly 75% of physicians blame the EHR for their burnout symptoms. Clinicians spend two additional hours on electronic data entry for every hour with patients, contributing to burnout in nearly 50% of primary care physicians.
• Compliance: Manual processes create compliance gaps through unauthorized access (like faxes left on machines) or outdated records. Hospitals and nursing facilities exchange incomplete, delayed, or difficult-to-use information in over 30% of cases, making it nearly impossible to maintain proper documentation standards manually.
• Cost and productivity impact: These challenges cost healthcare organizations money through extra labor, slower revenue cycles, and potential penalties. Physicians spend 49.2% of clinic time on EHR and desk work and only 27% directly with patients. Each fax page costs $1.50 to process, taking about 180 seconds per fax.

What is AI Data Extraction in Healthcare (and How Does it Work)?

AI data extraction transforms unstructured healthcare documents into structured, actionable data. 

Here’s how this works in practice, using Alice’s visit to Bonobo Healthcare as an example:

Step 1: Ingest

When Alice arrives, her faxed medical history from the local clinic immediately enters Bonobo’s AI system. The system captures these inputs — whether they’re referral letters, lab results, or clinical notes — through direct fax integration, email, uploads, or scanner connections.

Step 2: AI/ML Analysis

The system employs multiple technologies to understand and extract meaningful information:

• Optical character recognition (OCR) enhances document quality and converts visual text to digital characters. For example, it can distinguish between “50mg” and “500mg” on Alice’s medication list and recognize her doctor’s handwritten note about recent dizziness symptoms.
• Machine learning classification identifies the document type (in this case, a patient history and medication list) and locates specific information fields. It knows to look for allergies near the top of the form and medication dosages in the middle section, even though the clinic’s form differs from Bonobo’s standard template.
• Large language models (LLMs) identify medical concepts and understand connections between them. They recognize that Alice’s “Type 2 DM” and “T2DM” both refer to Type 2 Diabetes and can associate her Metformin prescription with this diagnosis.

Step 3: Format

The system organizes Alice’s information into a structured document with appropriate sections. An unusually high blood pressure reading (195/110) is automatically flagged for human verification.

Step 4: HISP (Health Information Service Provider)

The formatted data travels through HIPAA-compliant channels to ensure security and regulatory compliance.

Step 5: EHR Integration

By the time Dr. Carol opens Alice’s chart, all information is populated in the appropriate EHR sections. Instead of spending 10-15 minutes manually processing paperwork, Dr. Carol immediately addresses Alice’s concerns, discusses her diabetes management, and investigates her dizziness symptoms.

Meanwhile, billing receives accurate coding information, and the system automatically creates a reminder for Alice’s next HbA1c test.

Introducing Clarity CD

Clarity Clinical Documentation™ is a comprehensive AI-powered data extraction solution that seamlessly integrates with existing healthcare systems. The platform processes incoming documents through the complete workflow:

1. Document capture: Automatically receives and processes documents from multiple sources, including eFax, emails, scanners, and uploads.
2. Intelligent extraction: Applies advanced OCR, machine learning, and healthcare-specific NLP to accurately extract critical information.
3. Structured output: Transforms unstructured content into standardized formats compatible with your systems.
4. Secure delivery: Routes the processed information through HIPAA-compliant channels.
5. EHR integration: Populates the correct fields in your existing EHR without disruptive implementation.

Because Clarity CD integrates directly with cloud-based, HIPAA-compliant eFax services, the entire workflow remains secure while eliminating paper handling.

6 Key Benefits of AI-Powered Data Extraction for Healthcare

With AI in place, we can see what benefits the system brings to address the challenges above:

1. More time for what matters. When Alice’s medical records arrive at Bonobo Healthcare, AI processes them instantly rather than sitting in a fax queue. Staff can focus on patient experience instead of data entry, reducing backlogs and accelerating care delivery.
   • For the whole organization: Clarity CD reduces processing time by 70% compared to manual data entry, addressing the paper and fax overload that previously created bottlenecks.
   • For COOs and clinical leaders: Staff time can be redirected from manual data entry to higher-value activities, with immediate improvements in operational efficiency.
2. Data providers can trust. Dr. Carol can trust that Alice’s information has been accurately extracted. Unlike manual transcription, the AI system consistently and accurately identifies medications, diagnoses, and test results, eliminating potentially dangerous mistakes like misinterpreting dosages.
   • Real results: Data entry errors are reduced to near zero, eliminating the human errors and inconsistencies that compromise patient safety.
   • For the billing department: Accurate diagnostic codes ensure proper reimbursement without manual coding errors.
3. Care that doesn’t keep patients waiting. Alice’s complete medical history is available in the EHR immediately upon receipt of documents. Critical information, such as lab results and previous diagnoses, is instantly accessible, allowing for faster clinical decisions without delays that could impact treatment timelines.
   • Measurable impact: Critical patient data becomes available immediately, preventing the delays that occur when 50% of post-acute providers receive information only after patients are in their care.
   • For the pharmacy: Immediate access to medication history prevents adverse interactions.
4. Peace of mind for compliance teams. Bonobo benefits from automatic audit trails and reduced exposure to protected health information. The structured data format makes it easier to meet interoperability requirements when sharing information with other providers, reducing compliance risks.
   • Compliance advantage: Comprehensive audit trails and secure handling ensure protected health information remains safe, addressing the risks inherent in manual processes.
   • For CFOs: Reduced costs associated with documentation-related delays and faster revenue cycles through more efficient claims processing.
5. Information that tells the whole story. Rather than just attaching scanned PDFs, the system extracts and organizes data into appropriate EHR fields. This allows Dr. Carol to easily see Alice’s health metric trends and ensures important information isn’t buried in attachments.
   • Documentation quality: Structured data population enhances the completeness and usability of patient records, solving the problem where 76% of skilled nursing facilities report receiving unusable data.
   • For quality improvement teams: Structured data makes it easier to analyze and identify care gaps.
6. Clinicians who can be human again. Dr. Carol can dedicate more time to direct patient interaction instead of administrative tasks. The reduced documentation burden decreases the risk of burnout for clinical staff, leading to better care experiences and a more satisfying professional practice.
   • Staff wellbeing: Clinical staff freed from documentation burdens can refocus on patient care, directly addressing the burnout challenges where physicians spend nearly half their time on EHR work.
   • Patient experience: Enhanced patient satisfaction through more attentive care and faster processing.

What once required significant manual effort now happens seamlessly in the background, creating a more efficient, accurate, and patient-centered visit while maintaining security and regulatory compliance.

For CTOs and CIOs, Clarity CD doesn’t require replacing existing systems — it layers onto current workflows, preserving your technology investments. As a scalable cloud solution, IT leaders don’t need to maintain complex new infrastructure, and implementation is streamlined with minimal disruption to operations.

Clarity CD transforms how organizations manage information flow by addressing the fundamental challenges of healthcare documentation. It turns what was once a burden into a strategic advantage that improves care quality while reducing costs.

Planning for AI Data Extraction

AI data extraction transforms healthcare operations. It turns the long-standing unstructured data problem into an opportunity, freeing up time, reducing errors, improving compliance, and, ultimately, speeding up care delivery.

If you want to plan for AI in your healthcare organization, here are some pointers to start:

• Assess your document workflows: Audit where unstructured data enters the organization (fax lines, email attachments, scanning of paper forms) and identify high-impact areas to automate.
• Ensure seamless integration: Any AI extraction tool must integrate seamlessly with EHR or document management systems. Clarity CD was built for interoperability. Avoid creating another data silo.
• Prioritize data security: Vet solutions for strong security practices, including compliance with HIPAA, HITRUST certification, encryption of data in transit and at rest, and robust user access controls.
• Verify accuracy and customization: Inquire about a solution’s accuracy rates and how it performs on clinical documents specifically. Can it handle medical terminology, abbreviations, and varying document formats? Is it using templates or true ML?
• Plan for change management: Implementing AI data extraction will change staff workflows. Ensure there’s a plan to train staff to review AI-extracted data (especially in early phases) and gradually trust the system. Emphasize that these tools are meant to assist staff, not replace them.
• Start small, then scale: Start by conducting a pilot in one department or use case (e.g., processing incoming referral faxes in a clinic) to validate the technology and measure its benefits.

Healthcare leaders who want to reclaim the hours lost to manual data entry and bolster their digital strategy should explore AI-powered document extraction. Solutions like Consensus Clarity CD are available today to help turn unstructured documents into actionable data. 

Download our free guide: From Hype to Reality: How AI Can Automate Fax Processing to learn how other organizations have successfully implemented this technology. Then, when you’re ready to see the technology in action, contact us to schedule your Clarity CD demo.

By embracing AI for data extraction, healthcare organizations can achieve new efficiency and data excellence levels, allowing their teams to focus on what truly matters: delivering high-quality patient care.

When your healthcare organization can exchange data seamlessly with other providers, quality of care improves, and provider burdens lessen. So, why are just 43% of hospitals routinely engaging in interoperable data exchange right now?

Electronic health record (EHR) interoperability has stalled — not due to a lack of standards, but because organizations still rely on fragmented, outdated systems. Cloud-based EHR interoperability solutions, like those from Consensus Cloud Solutions, are removing the roadblocks and paving the way for secure, seamless data exchange that finally delivers on interoperability’s promise.

Let’s answer common questions about EHR interoperability standards, examine the challenges of adopting them, and explore how cloud-based solutions can help your organization break through the barriers.

What Benefits of EHR Interoperability Await Organizations That Get it Right?

To shape their strategies, C-suite leaders industry-wide are shifting their conversations away from the basics of what EHR interoperability is and toward setting KPIs based on real-world benefits of EHR interoperability that other organizations have achieved, including:

• Lowers administrative costs. Administrative burdens consume up to 30% of the nation’s total healthcare spend. By reducing manual tasks like re-keying information from faxes, interoperability eliminates busy work and reduces the risk of billing or claims processing errors.
• Improves data accuracy. Duplicate or incomplete data can lead to misdiagnoses and medication errors. Conversely, multiple studies show that EHR interoperability leads to greater medication safety and reduces the risk of serious patient safety events. 
• Accelerates care coordination. Rapid sharing of EHR data creates smooth transition-of-care handoffs, such as patients moving from hospitals to skilled nursing facilities (SNFs).
• Enhances regulatory compliance. Interoperability promotes compliant sharing of PHI, reducing the risk of HIPAA violations and costly fines.
• Creates more engaged patients. Information sharing between patient portals, mobile health apps, and wearables helps patients stay healthy and improve chronic condition management.

Building Blocks for Next-Level EHR Interoperability

Achieving higher levels of EHR interoperability starts by establishing a strong foundation built on universally accepted standards that enable the secure and consistent exchange of data across systems. Any solution you add to your organization’s tech stack should comply with at least one of these four protocols.

• HL7 (Health Level Seven International): HL7 is a foundational data sharing framework, allowing real-time communications between hospitals, skilled nursing facilities (SNF), laboratories, and disparate EHRs. 
• FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources): Developed by HL7, FHIR creates a modern, web-based framework for exchanging healthcare data, using application programming interfaces (APIs) to integrate seamlessly with providers, networks, EHRs, and health information exchanges (HIEs).
• CCD (Continuity of Care Document): Typically used for care transitions, a CCD provides essential patient demographics — medications, allergies, immunization records, medical history — in a standard Consolidated Clinical Document Architecture (C-CDA) format.
• X12: The ANSI X12N/EDI standard ensures healthcare organizations comply with administrative requirements regarding the electronic submission and processing of insurance claims, eligibility verifications, and payments.

Using these protocols as your guide, your organization can future-proof its systems and ensure smooth, accurate information exchange across every point of care.

The EHR Interoperability Barriers That Hold Many Healthcare Organizations Back

Multiple technical and regulatory hurdles stand in the way of full interoperability, which is why interoperability remained flat among U.S. hospitals from 2022 to 2023. Outdated legacy systems incapable of integrating with newer technologies represent the biggest barriers to adopting consistent information-sharing standards. When systems cannot talk to one another in a common language, these additional challenges result:

Lack of Standardization

EHRs vary among healthcare organizations. When one EHR uses a different data format, coding system, or communications protocol than another, information gaps occur, creating unexpected and dangerous consequences. For example, if an urgent care center receives a medical history from a patient’s external provider in a non-universal format, staff may have to re-key the information. If a typo or oversight mistakenly occurs in that patient’s medication allergy list, it could trigger a serious safety event. 

Complex Integration Costs

Trying to maintain, update, and integrate legacy systems chews up enormous IT staff time and financial resources. Larger health systems without appropriate in-house staff must grapple with costly vendor fees to remain compliant. Smaller practices and rural healthcare facilities must pick and choose updates and integrations based on their budgetary constraints, inhibiting their ability to achieve true interoperability.

Security and Privacy Risks

Healthcare organizations continue to be prime targets for cyberattacks, including data breaches and ransomware events. Sharing protected health information (PHI) across multiple systems without proper security controls raises the risk of breaches because it causes staff to rely on unsecured, manual workarounds that lack encryption, permissions management, and audit trails. Organizations must insist on solutions that use data encryption to protect sensitive patient data. Another must-have: tight access controls that can ensure only clinicians and others with specific permissions can access PHI when it’s at rest or in transit.

Reluctance to Share Data

While the 21st Century Cures Act prohibits information blocking, the rules are complex, and exceptions exist, causing some vendors or organizations to inadvertently inhibit access to information. When information is blocked, providers lack access to a patient’s complete medical record, so they may order duplicate tests without knowing it or make a wrong diagnosis based on a key piece of missing medical information. Patients, too, feel the effects of information blocking. For example, if a provider’s system doesn’t share data freely, patients may have to repeat unnecessary tests or fill out the same paperwork multiple times.

Gaps in Patient Identifiers

Matching patient records across systems is challenging without a universal patient identifier. A patient with different last names, whether due to marriage or other reasons, may have two separate medical records. The same is true if patient names are accidentally misspelled because they have to be re-keyed into an organization’s EHR. These inaccuracies slow down workflows, increase administrative burdens for staff, and can lead to billing snafus, claims denials, and medication errors.

Five Essential Steps to Achieve True Interoperability (and EHR Interoperability Solutions to Help You Get There)

Overcoming the challenges of EHR interoperability and achieving higher levels of data sharing requires a proven strategy coupled with leading-edge technology. Shape a winning strategy around these five tenets, and discover how EHR interoperability solutions from Consensus Cloud Solutions can support your team at each step of their journey.

Adopt Compatible Standards

Interoperability begins by choosing tools that speak the same language. Consensus solutions support compatible standards by converting paper files and faxes into formats that can be easily shared.

eFax Corporate® helps organizations leverage their legacy systems and move from simple digital documents to advanced healthcare standards for HL7 and FHIR secure data transport. With eFax Corporate, you can convert paper-based medical records into electronic documents. What’s more, eFax Corporate can integrate with your existing electronic medical record (EMR) or EHR system through a simple, secure cloud fax API.

Clarity CD™ uses artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and natural language processing (NLP) to extract unstructured data from faxes and images and then turn them into structured C-CDA files that integrate directly into your EHR. Here’s how the process works:

Establish Clear Governance

The next step in your interoperability journey is to procure solutions that allow you to access, share, and secure data so you can remain compliant with HIPAA and the 21st Century Cures Act. 

eFax Corporate encrypts data to prevent unauthorized PHI access and reduce legal risks. A user control panel inside eFax Corporate lets you assign tiered levels of administrative access from one central location. You can add or remove users across the entire organization, automate onboarding and offboarding, and maintain a full audit trail. Features like these support standardized policy enforcement while keeping PHI protected.

Implement Scalable Infrastructure

Rigid point-to-point connections will not create true EHR operability. Instead, your organization needs systems designed for easy integration to avoid the high cost and complexity of manual connections. 

The eFax Unite™ platform centralizes multiple communication channels — fax, Direct Secure Messaging, Care Quality/Trusted Exchange Framework and Custom Agreement (TEFCA) — without requiring point-to-point connections. You can send patient data effortlessly through CareQuality, including connections with CommonWell Health Alliance, accountable care organizations, HIEs, and other data exchange networks. 

Organizations using athenahealth’s EHR will benefit from the eFax integration with athenaOne®, which matches faxed patient information with the right patient record, so providers have the information they need at the point of care. Here’s how it works:

Train Staff and Stakeholders

Your interoperability strategy is only as strong as the people who use your systems every day. Clinicians and staff need intuitive, efficient workflows so they can exchange information with referring providers and post-acute care centers easily. Consensus solutions fit naturally into how teams work, improving productivity and reducing the disruption of having to learn new tools.

With eFax Corporate, staff can send, receive, and route faxes using email-like tools. In addition, you can configure eFax Corporate to send with specific routing customized to your organization’s workflow. Features like this help staff get back about 70% of their time for patient care.

Clarity CD removes repetitive manual entry by using AI to extract and structure data. And eFax Unite centralizes communications, saving staff from having to learn and use multiple different tools.

Monitor and Measure Outcomes

By tracking and measuring your KPIs, you can push your organization toward higher levels of EHR interoperability. To make this happen, you need visibility into how information moves, who it reaches, and how it influences patient care. Consensus solutions offer multiple built-in tools to help you measure your KPIs and improve performance over time.

eFax Corporate includes detailed reporting features that let teams track fax volume by department or user, helping identify bottlenecks and reduce time spent on administrative tasks.

eFax Unite provides a full audit trail and a complete view of data exchange across networks so you can monitor and improve timeliness, delivery status, and compliance.

Achieve Seamless Data Exchange With the Right EHR Interoperability Solutions

EHR interoperability is not just nice to have. It’s now federally regulated and enforced through hefty civil monetary penalties (reaching up to $1 million per violation for information blocking) with the TEFCA final rule that went into effect on January 15, 2025. Uplevel your interoperability capabilities by evaluating cloud-based solutions that can help your organization share information, improve care quality, and reduce costs through seamless data exchange. Ready to begin? Request a demo of Consensus Cloud Solutions’ products today.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the most important features to look for in EHR interoperability solutions?

Seek solutions that support widely accepted protocols like HL7, FHIR, and CCD to ensure compatibility across symptoms. Easy, API-led integration and data encryption are other must-haves. Products like eFax Corporate, Clarity CD, and eFax Unite combine these features to help healthcare organizations reduce manual work and reach new levels of EHR interoperability.

How does EHR interoperability give clinicians and staff more time to spend on patient care?

EHR interoperability streamlines data exchange, reducing manual data entry and eliminating paper-based processes. Tools like eFax Corporate can reduce administrative burdens by 70% by digitizing faxes and integrating them directly into EHR workflows.

What are the benefits of EHR interoperability across provider networks?

Interoperable systems support better care coordination, especially regarding handoffs from hospitals to post-acute care providers or from emergency departments to primary care providers. Solutions like eFax Unite allow providers to exchange patient information through national networks like Carequality and CommonWell Health Alliance without requiring custom point-to-point integrations.

When every second counts, delays in accessing pathology images or lab results can jeopardize patient care and disrupt healthcare operations. Yet, 57% of healthcare organizations still report significant difficulty sending and receiving data across different vendor platforms. 

This challenge highlights the growing emphasis on electronic health records (EHR) interoperability solutions—seamless data exchanges between various systems, devices, and applications. Interoperability in healthcare is the backbone of health services, enabling providers and patients to remain connected throughout the continuum of care. However, the current state of EHR interoperability often falls short.

In this guide, we’ll go beyond the surface of clinical documentation and electronic health records to explore why interoperability is vital in today’s medical climate. We’ll also explore how it works, the obstacles to achieving it and how to ensure data fluidity and digital interoperability. 

EHR Interoperability Explained

Healthcare is a data-driven industry: the average hospital generates approximately 50 petabytes of data annually, with the volume of healthcare data increasing at a rate of 47% per year. As data continues to grow, EHR compatibility becomes essential to ensure effective integration. 

Organizations that produce health data in the form of electronic medical records (EMR), radiography, laboratory reports, pathology images and even payor claims carry a responsibility to ensure it’s accessible beyond their own systems. Enter the role of EHR interoperability. 

What is EHR Interoperability?

An electronic health record is a comprehensive digital version of a patient’s medical history, including diagnoses, medications, plus previous and ongoing treatment plans. EHR systems enable healthcare providers to access, share and update patient data across multiple platforms, often in real-time, so authorized personnel can retrieve accurate patient information during each interaction.

EHR interoperability refers to the ability of these systems to communicate with one another across different providers and practices, from hospitals and home healthcare agencies to acute and post-acute facilities. Interoperability allows EHR systems to securely exchange patient data in an easily accessible manner so critical information can be shared seamlessly across multiple networks. 

5 Key Features of an EHR Interoperability System

An interoperable EHR system supports coordinated care among various hospitals, practices and specialists to streamline clinical workflows and improve patient outcomes. It does so through five key features:

1. Data Management: Stores patient information in a secure, digital format that complies with data protection standards and is easily accessible to authorized healthcare providers from multiple locations in real-time.
2. Direct Secure Messaging: Communicates with authorized personnel within the practice and connects with statewide HIEs, community exchanges, referral networks and the providers within those exchanges.
3. Patient Information Query: Supports searches for relevant patient data, such as allergies and diagnoses from another healthcare system or database, like Carequality or CommonWell Health Alliance, to ensure proper patient mapping.
4. Data Exchange Networks: Bridges the communication gap between multiple providers to ensure a continuity of care and assess acuity for follow-up care plans, particularly for patients with complex medical conditions. 
5. Digital Cloud Fax: Delivers digital documents including but not limited to faxes, referrals and ePrescribing to send prescriptions directly to pharmacies and minimize errors from handwritten documentation. 

While some EHR systems excel in data management, they lack direct secure messaging and digital cloud faxing that automate data exchanges. A Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)-compliant and HITRUST r2 (2-Year) solution like eFax Unite™ eliminates these data silos, working to securely transmit patient records. eFax Unite encrypts data and sends it via a secure communication tunnel (TLS 1.2) so it’s instantly accessible to validated healthcare participants. 

The Importance of EHR Interoperability in Healthcare

The American Hospital Association (AHA) reports that the vast majority of office-based physicians (78%) and nearly all non-federal acute care hospitals (96%) have adopted a certified EHR system. The newfound ubiquity of these systems might suggest that EHR interoperability is at an all-time high; however, that’s far from the case.

As it stands, 56% of healthcare professionals do not share patient data within their organization, and 52% do not share it with outside organizations due to a lack of EHR interoperability, making it difficult to identify and respond to patients’ whole-person needs. When data is available, it’s often paper-based, hand-written and faxed.

These challenges underscore the importance of EHR interoperability in healthcare and secure digital cloud fax technology as a critical foundation for enhancing patient outcomes, supporting healthcare operations and empowering patients with greater control over their health data throughout the continuum of care. 

Enhancing Patient Outcomes

To understand how EHR interoperability enhances patient outcomes, it’s helpful to first consider how a lack of it disrupts the continuity of care. For example, one in four patients discharged from a hospital to a post-acute care setting experiences interruptions in their care coordination, including 40% of Medicare beneficiaries. 

Similarly, the exchange of maternal health data — which is not standardized — is often not interoperable across settings, hindering patient care as well as research on maternal morbidity, longitudinal maternal care and its impacts on infant well-being. Such gaps create barriers to understanding a mother’s health during and after pregnancy. 

These breakdowns in information exchange emphasize the importance of interoperable technologies. 

By enabling the seamless passage of information across digital health ecosystems, EHR interoperability improves diagnosis accuracy, supports data-driven treatment decisions and facilitates self-management of care. It equips healthcare professionals with evidence-based knowledge, ultimately driving better patient outcomes. 

Supporting Healthcare Operations

EHR interoperability plays a crucial role in supporting healthcare operations. It improves clinical documentation by automating communication between care teams, especially for patients with complex conditions requiring multiple specialists. Interoperability tools like eFax Unite’s Direct Secure Message feature ensure providers are consistently informed about updates to a patient’s treatment plan, reducing delays, refining care coordination and advancing operational efficiency. 

Additionally, EHR interoperability enables real-time event notifications from hospitals to home health agencies or acute facilities to rehabilitation clinics, alerting them when a shared patient is seen. Automating these updates prevents unnecessary home health visits during hospital stays and ensures timely follow-ups after discharge. As such, EHR interoperability helps optimize workflows, improve resource allocation and create a more efficient system for managing patient care transitions, addressing interoperability in healthcare challenges and resolving common EHR integration challenges that arise between healthcare systems. 

Empowering Patients

At the heart of EHR interoperability is its ability to empower patients through improved care delivery and communication. By ensuring healthcare providers have instant access to accurate, up-to-date information, interoperability bridges gaps in treatment and supports timely decision-making. This allows providers to offer care plans tailored to each patient’s needs, fostering trust and helping individuals take charge of their health journey.

Accurate and accessible health records also enable more collaborative care, empowering patients to actively engage with their treatment plans. When patients experience uninterrupted, coordinated care supported by interoperable systems, they feel more confident in their providers and more satisfied with their experience. This combination of trust and empowerment encourages greater patient engagement and better health outcomes, reinforcing the importance of interoperability in healthcare and highlighting the benefits of EHR interoperability. 

How EHR Interoperability Works

EHR interoperability relies on standardized data formats and protocols, like Health Level Seven (HL7) and Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR), plus Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) to sync patient data across providers, labs, pharmacies and patient portals. 

Data Standards and Protocols

In the context of EHR interoperability, “standard” has two key meanings:

1. Data Standardization: Defined elements and coding schemes that guarantee consistency in how medical data is generated and transmitted across healthcare systems.
2. Data Standards: Sets of rules that inform how data should be recorded, stored and shared between various healthcare providers to maintain security and accuracy.

Various standards and protocols enable EHR interoperability across healthcare systems. FHIR is the most widely recognized, while Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) guides how medical images are shared between different networks, such as picture archiving and communication systems (PACS).

There’s also ICD-10, which provides standardized codes for diagnoses and procedures that are essential for billing, and HL7 to support the accurate exchange of administrative, clinical and demographic data. Together, these frameworks create a foundation for seamless and secure patient health information sharing.

Connecting Systems and Providers

EHR systems replace paper files and charts, which often get lost in the shuffle, with automated data exchange between healthcare systems. To facilitate this, the federal Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) requires certified EHRs to offer open, standard APIs.

APIs are like bridges between different systems, allowing each provider to directly access and exchange standardized data. The most common healthcare API is SMART on FHIR API23 and the SMART/HL7 Bulk Data API. There are also HIEs connecting providers within a certain region, creating complete and accessible patient health records, even if an individual begins seeing a new doctor or healthcare group. 

3 Common Challenges in Achieving EHR Interoperability

Despite the increasing importance of EHR interoperability, nearly 60% of healthcare organizations still face challenges with sending and receiving data across platforms. The reason? Interoperability comes with its own set of hurdles. 

Technical and Infrastructure Barriers

As healthcare technology has evolved, legacy systems like hospital information systems (HIS) and laboratory information systems (LIS) have been replaced by loosely coupled ecosystems designed to integrate multiple databases into one dashboard. However, this patchwork approach often falls short. The lack of standardization across systems, paired with outdated infrastructure, hinders the flow of critical patient information. 

Overcoming these technical barriers is essential to achieving true EHR interoperability. With eFax Unite, you can stop using a patchworked technology stack to communicate with patients, providers and plans. Our simple, inbox-like interface powers direct secure messaging via the DirectTrust framework, with features that allow providers to parse, split, rotate and transform unstructured documentation into standardized data.  

Privacy and Security Concerns

The privacy, security and breach notification regulations under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) safeguard protected health information (PHI) and ensure EHR interoperability. However, compliance remains challenging due to evolving threats and disjointed infrastructure. 

In 2023 alone, 725 data breaches were reported to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR), exposing over 133 million medical records. eFax Unite can help remedy this challenge. As a HIPAA-compliant, HITRUST r2 (2-year) certified solution, eFax Unite uses TLS 1.2 encryption for data transmissions and AES 256-bit encryption for storage to prevent PHI data leakage. 

Financial and Organizational Hurdles

Achieving EHR interoperability often requires significant financial investment, from upgrading legacy systems to training staff on new technology. Many organizations also struggle with fragmented systems for direct secure messaging, faxing and patient querying, creating inefficiencies and additional costs.  

eFax Unite solves these challenges by providing a single, centralized interface to manage all patient information. This streamlined approach provides true data fluidity and interoperability, eliminating the need for multiple systems and reducing both financial and organizational hurdles. 

Maximize Productivity with eFax Corporate and Unite Integration

Integrating eFax Corporate® with eFax Unite enhances EHR interoperability by connecting cloud-based faxing with a HIPAA-secure, HL7- and FHIR-compliant platform. This integration allows healthcare organizations to consolidate data exchange networks, patient information queries, direct secure messaging and digital faxing into one simplified system. 

With this unified approach, providers can efficiently manage digital and paper-based documents — such as faxes, scanned PDFs and referrals — through a single interface. Automating these workflows amplifies patient data exchange across the continuum of care, boosting connectivity and operational efficiency for better patient outcomes. 

With multiple EHR connectors, providers can easily perform patient lookups directly within eFax Unite, ensuring real-time access to patient data. eFax Unite also allows providers to attach faxed documents to patient records with minimal setup and eliminates manual clerical data entry, enabling staff to focus on analyzing the data, not entering it into the system. 

The Future of EHR Interoperability

The COVID-10 pandemic highlighted the potential of EHR interoperability in managing public health emergencies, from detecting trends to tracking the spread of infectious diseases in real-time. The future looks equally as promising, with providers in Minnesota applying EHR data to monitor the impact of the drug overdose epidemic across racial and ethnic groups, helping to curb mortality spikes and improve healthcare equity. 

Emerging innovations and evolving policies are poised to further shape the future of interoperability, driving progress across the healthcare sector.

Innovations Driving Interoperability

The transition from paper fax to secure cloud fax technology, like eFax Corporate, has revolutionized healthcare communications and interoperability. It allows EHR data to be instantly converted into fax transmissions and sent securely to validated healthcare participants with just a click.

Digital documents also allow the application of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, such as Optical Character Recognition and Natural Language Processing (NLP), to convert unstructured data into structured, standardized formats that require minimal manual intervention. 

With eFax Unite, this data is stored, searched and shared more easily than ever before. A full-featured interface cleans up documents before attaching them to patient records and automatically extracts patient demographic data to easily attach it to the correct patient record in your EHR. 

Policy and Regulatory Trends

As we enter 2025, the World Health Organization (WHO) advocates for digital health at the top of global health priorities, emphasizing the principles of EHR interoperability, transparency, accessibility and privacy. 

This goal goes hand-in-hand with the proposed policy and regulatory changes potentially brought on by a new presidential administration. Healthcare organizations must remain informed about updates to the HIPAA Privacy Rule, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Act and the FTC’s Health Breach Notification Rule to ensure ongoing compliance. 

Achieve True EHR Interoperability with eFax Unite 

EHR interoperability plays a vital role in bettering patient outcomes, improving healthcare operations and empowering patients. However, achieving true interoperability comes with challenges. These obstacles can be overcome with eFax Unite, a secure solution to streamline data exchange and strengthen connectivity. 

eFax Unite powers interoperability through an easy-to-use platform that unifies communication and upgrades clinical workflows across the continuum of care. Request a demo today to achieve true EHR interoperability.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a lack of interoperability affect healthcare?

A lack of interoperability disrupts care coordination and creates gaps in patient data. This leads to operational inefficiencies and negatively impacts patient outcomes due to delayed or incorrect PHI exchange across systems. 

Why does moving toward interoperability mean weaning from paper fax?

Moving toward interoperability means weaning from paper faxes because digital solutions like cloud-based faxing streamline data exchange, improve accuracy and provide greater security, allowing faster, more efficient communication across systems.

How do you enhance interoperability?

You enhance interoperability with eFax Unite™, a secure and centralized interface to manage all patient information. This streamlined solution funnels all inbound documents into a single dashboard, regardless of source and helps turn unstructured data into useful information.

Managing patient information is more complex than ever. Healthcare practices are dealing with more data, stricter rules and rising security risks tied to outdated software and manual processes. For many providers, moving to digital records isn’t just smart, it’s necessary to stay current and remain compliant in today’s increasingly cyber-connected world. 

Electronic medical records (EMRs) and electronic health records (EHRs) are at the center of this shift. But what are the key differences between EHR and EMR systems? How do they compare when it comes to features, data access and provider benefits? In this guide, we’ll break down the basics of EHR vs. EMR systems to help you choose the right fit for your practice.

EHR vs. EMR: Defining Their Roles in Healthcare

EMR vs. EHR: what is the difference, and why does it matter? While some people may use the terms interchangeably, the differences between EHR and EMR are significant. EHRs offer a more complete view across providers, while EMRs focus on records within a single practice. Here’s what each one means:

What is an EMR?

EMR stands for electronic medical record. It’s a digital version of a patient’s chart and includes detailed medical history, diagnoses, treatment plans, prescriptions, immunization dates, allergies and lab results. EMRs are for internal use within a healthcare organization and act like electronic replicas of paper records. 

EMRs often operate on legacy systems or are built into proprietary platforms, focusing on intra-organizational operations. The information can’t be shared with external parties and doesn’t support communication with systems outside the originating organization. While an EMR may automate processes within an organization, it often requires manual processes for data sharing with third parties.

What is an EHR?

EHR stands for electronic health record. It covers most EMR functionalities while enabling patient data exchange across various healthcare organizations. It integrates patient records into a unified, interoperable system and supports a patient-centric approach to care delivery. The records allow authorized providers, hospitals, laboratories and specialists to access all health information in one place to gain a holistic view of a patient’s care.

EHR systems use interoperability standards like HL7 FHIR and APIs for seamless communication among disparate systems. They integrate with third-party applications (e.g., clinical decision support tools and patient engagement platforms) to ensure real-time access to the latest patient data while complying with strict security protocols such as HIPAA and HITRUST.

EHR vs EMR: What Are the Key Differences?

EMR and EHR systems vary significantly in terms of scope and accessibility. They also differ in how they support patient engagement and regulatory compliance. Let’s delve into the nuances:

Scope and Functionality

An EMR system is an internal system for keeping patient records for a single healthcare organization. It doesn’t integrate with external systems or support data sharing across different facilities or providers. This limited setup highlights a key difference between EHR and EMR systems: EMRs are more narrow in scope.

In contrast, an EHR system encompasses a broader healthcare ecosystem and aggregates data from multiple providers. It gives providers a full view of a patient’s history and supports enhanced features like care coordination across facilities and predictive analytics for population health. This wider reach is a major EHR vs. EMR difference that healthcare teams should consider when weighing potential solutions (more on this below).

Accessibility and Interoperability

EMR systems often rely on proprietary formats, which can make sharing information with outside providers difficult. They typically require custom setups to enable even basic clinical data exchange. This slows communication, drives up costs and can create gaps in patient care. EHR systems, on the other hand, are built to support interoperability in healthcare. They use standards like HL7 FHIR to enable seamless, secure sharing across different platforms. 

For even greater connectivity, healthcare organizations can integrate solutions like eFax Unite™. It automates and simplifies clinical data exchange by routing all incoming files—from faxes to PDFs—into a single intake process, turning unstructured documents into structured data ready for the EHR.

Patient Engagement

When comparing EHR systems vs. EMR, one clear difference is how they support patient engagement. EMR tools are mostly provider-focused. They can document visits and treatment plans, but few offer patients access to their records or ways to take part in their care.

In contrast, EHR systems include patient-centric features like portals where users can view their medical records, schedule appointments and communicate with their providers. For example, eFax Unite helps enhance the patient experience by enabling secure direct messaging between care providers and patients.

Compliance and Regulations

Both EMRs and EHRs must adhere to strict regulations like HIPAA to ensure the secure handling of protected health information (PHI). However, many legacy EMR tools still rely on manual data exchange processes to move information into and out of the software, which can increase risks and raise concerns around patient data security.

That’s why EHR systems use built-in safeguards and interoperability tools to support secure patient data transfer throughout the automated process. Pairing an EHR with tools like eFax Unite adds even more protection. With HIPAA-compliant, HITRUST CSF-certified features and a DirectTrust framework, eFax Unite ensures sensitive data is shared securely while keeping communication fast and efficient.

Advantages and Limitations of EMRs and EHRs in Healthcare

Choosing between EHR vs. EMR systems will ultimately impact healthcare data management for your practice. Below are the key benefits and limitations of each option to help you decide which fits best:

Advantages of EMRs

EMRs are typically simpler to manage, especially for smaller practices with limited resources. They deliver a focused set of functionalities and are best for streamlining in-house operations to improve administrative tasks like scheduling, billing and documentation. In most cases, EMRs are less complex and faster to deploy because they don’t require integration with other systems.

Advantages of EHRs

EHRs offer comprehensive interoperability to connect multiple systems and organizations for seamless data exchange across a patient’s care continuum. They aggregate data from various providers into a unified view of a patient’s health history, helping reduce duplicate tests, improve decision-making and minimize the risks of drug interactions. They often have built-in functions to ensure compliance with standards like HIPAA and HITRUST. Additionally, they provide robust analytics to help identify trends, predict treatment outcomes and enhance preventive care efforts in population health initiatives.

Limitations of EMRs and EHRs

EMRs lack interoperability, making data sharing with external providers challenging. The limited integration capabilities often lead to manual data entry, increasing errors and reducing efficiency. Additionally, these solutions may not scale to meet growing data-sharing needs as your practice grows or joins networks.

EHRs are often more complex to implement and maintain, requiring significant IT resources. The vast amounts of integrated data may make it challenging to sift through the information to find actionable insights. The transition to an EHR often requires comprehensive staff training and change management, while the learning curve may slow down processes during the adoption phase.

Choosing Between EMR and EHR: Practical Applications in Healthcare

The EHR vs. EMR choice depends on your organization’s needs, size and goals. Use the points below to help determine which system makes the most sense for your workflow: 

When to Use an EMR System

An EMR may be sufficient for organizations that don’t need to share patient data with external entities, or smaller practices with limited patient volume, looking for a simple solution to handle internal documentation. It may support specialized care and niche service providers that require a focused workflow. Some practices may use an EMR due to cost or compatibility concerns with upgrading to advanced systems.

When to Use an EHR Solution

An EHR is indispensable for coordinating care across multiple settings and facilitating data sharing among external parties. It supports integrated health networks where hospitals, multi-specialty practices and accountable care organizations (ACOs) must exchange real-time data to ensure care continuity. For example, an EHR integrated with eFax Unite allows patient data queries with Carequality.

An EHR supports population health management with trend analytics across patient populations. Providers can use the insights to manage chronic conditions, track vaccination rates or assess treatment plan efficacy. Additionally, healthcare organizations that seek to implement patient-centric care delivery should use an EHR. Tools like patient portals empower patients to access their medical records, view lab results and communicate with providers, encouraging them to become involved in their care plans.

5 Key Factors to Consider When Selecting an EHR or EMR System

Choosing the right EMR/EHR solution isn’t one-size-fits-all. These systems are key to efficient healthcare operations, so it’s important to evaluate them based on your practice’s unique needs.

1. Match the System to Your Practice’s Needs

The best healthcare software solutions fit the size of your practice, your specialty and your workflow. When selecting an EHR vs. EMR solution, look for a system that meets your immediate needs but can also scale with you over time. Whether you’re a solo provider or part of a large group, flexibility and customization options will help the platform grow with your organization.

2. Focus on Features and Ease of Use

The next step when comparing an electronic health record vs. electronic medical record system is to pay attention to key features. For instance, for an EHR, these may include patient scheduling, charting, billing, lab integration and reporting. Ease of use is just as important—your staff should be able to navigate the platform without a steep learning curve. A simple interface helps improve efficiency and reduces training time.

3. Prioritize Integration and Interoperability

EMR/EHR systems should support seamless communication across healthcare systems. Beyond easy-to-use features, your chosen solution must integrate with labs, pharmacies and other providers to enable smooth, real-time data sharing. Strong interoperability improves care coordination and helps reduce duplicate work. This is essential for practices aiming to streamline operations and maintain continuity of care across multiple settings.

4. Evaluate Vendor Experience and Support

At this point, you should narrow your vendor selection process down to those with proven experience in the healthcare space. Look for one that follows strict data security standards and offers HIPAA-compliant tools. Likewise, ask about training resources and technical support to ensure your staff is fully prepared. A strong partner will provide reliable onboarding, updates and service long after implementation.

5. Consider Total Cost and Return on Investment (ROI)

Lastly, review the total cost of a potential EMR/EHR system. Remember to factor in both upfront and ongoing expenses, such as licensing, maintenance and training. And while price matters, consider the long-term return as well. The right system can reduce paperwork, shorten billing cycles and support better patient care. A smart investment will save time, boost productivity and improve your bottom line.

Transitioning from EMR to EHR: Why and How to Make the Change

More healthcare organizations are moving from EMRs to EHRs to support their growth trajectory. To reap the most benefits and minimize disruption, providers must take steps to ensure a seamless transition. 

The Benefits of Upgrading to an EHR

Many healthcare organizations transition to EHRs as they scale or join networks to enable seamless patient data exchange with other providers. EHRs offer interoperability standards and tools to streamline care coordination and help organizations comply with evolving healthcare regulations. For example, secure data transfer is essential for HIPAA compliance, while data-sharing capabilities support adherence to the 21st Century Cures Act.

EHRs can better support multi-location practices or organizations with complex care delivery models like ACOs. They offer robust integration and automation features to help improve operational efficiency. They also reduce long-term costs associated with manual data handling, delays, redundancies and compliance penalties.

Moreover, EHRs provide a holistic view of a patient’s history to support accurate decision-making. They offer patient portal functionalities, allowing patients to access their health information to foster communication and trust. The improved patient experience empowers users to become more involved in their care plans, leading to better treatment outcomes.

How to Orchestrate a Successful Transition

Transitioning from an EMR to an EHR is a substantial undertaking. Here are the key steps to achieve the best outcomes:

1. Conduct a System Audit

Evaluate your EMR’s limitations to identify gaps and create a list of features you need in the new EHR. Also, catalog the data types and formats stored in the EMR (e.g., structured text, scanned documents, images) to determine migration requirements.

2. Select an EHR Platform

Evaluate your options’ integration capabilities and select an EHR that supports standards like HL7 FHIR for seamless data exchange. Also, use a solution that enables you to build a multi-tool ecosystem. For example, you may integrate eFax Unite with an EHR to streamline data ingestion from multiple sources and enhance data management.

3. Plan and Execute Data Migration

Map data fields in the EMR to corresponding ones in the EHR. These include patient demographics, clinical notes and medication histories. Also, automate data conversion whenever possible. For instance, you may use AI and natural language processing (NLP) tools to convert unstructured data (e.g., scanned faxes or free-text fields) into structured formats for EHR consumption. Conduct test migrations to identify issues like data mismatches or incomplete transfers before the transition.

4. Evaluate Infrastructure and Technical Readiness

Verify that your existing hardware and third-party systems can support the EHR. Consider upgrading network bandwidth and security protocols to handle increased data exchange demands.

5. Provide User Training and Optimize Workflows

Train staff on EHR functionalities, building on their knowledge of the EMR system and addressing new functions like automated data ingestion, patient portal management and interoperability features. Additionally, redesign workflows when necessary to fully leverage newfound EHR capabilities, such as automated referral management, care coordination and reporting.

6. Orchestrate a Phased Rollout

Start with a pilot phase and roll out the EHR to a subset of users or departments to identify challenges, resolve issues and gather feedback. Monitor performance metrics like data exchange latency, user error rates and patient satisfaction to inform targeted improvements before the organization-wide launch.

Building a Robust Multi-Tool Ecosystem with eFax Corporate and eFax Unite

Creating a connected multi-tool ecosystem around your EHR is key to improving data exchange, interoperability and overall efficiency. That’s why eFax Corporate® was designed to integrate seamlessly with eFax Unite, offering a unified platform for capturing and managing patient data across various sources, formats and workflows. This setup empowers healthcare professionals to streamline communication, reduce manual work and focus more on care delivery.

eFax Corporate is a HITRUST r2-certified (risk-based, 2 year) digital fax solution that supports secure, HIPAA-compliant transmission without the hassle of paper faxing. Meanwhile, eFax Unite provides a single interface for managing data exchange across communication channels. It can automatically parse, structure and route documents from eFax Corporate directly into the EHR system.

Together, these tools automate workflows, eliminate redundant processes and help prevent delays or data entry errors. They also support secure data exchange that meets HIPAA, HITRUST and other healthcare standards. Most importantly, by transforming unstructured fax data into structured formats, this multi-tool ecosystem gives clinicians quicker access to actionable insights.

The Future of Patient Data Management

While EMRs have their use cases, EHRs’ scalability and interoperability make them the obvious choice for healthcare providers that need to support seamless data exchange with external organizations and automate processes to enhance staff productivity. Additionally, EHRs integrate with advanced data management tools like eFax Unite, which improves data management and fluidity critical for modern healthcare practices.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a key feature of an EHR but not of an EMR?

Interoperability is a key feature in EHRs not available in EMRs. EHRs use HL7 FHIR standards to enable data exchange across disparate systems, giving healthcare providers a comprehensive view of a patient’s medical history regardless of where care was delivered.

What information is not included in EHR?

EHRs may not include financial information (e.g., billing), provider- or workflow-specific internal notes or non-medical personal data unless integrated into specific care programs. Additionally, you may not see external non-integrated data housed in systems not connected to the interoperability network.

Who typically uses an EHR?

EHRs are used by various healthcare professionals and organizations that require access to a patient’s comprehensive medical history. They include hospitals, health systems, primary and specialty care providers, ACOs and public health agencies.

Can an EMR be converted into an EHR system?

Yes, some EMR systems can be upgraded or transitioned into an EHR system, depending on the vendor and platform capabilities. However, it may require additional tools, integration work or data migration to support broader interoperability, which may be cost- and labor-intensive. 

How much does an EHR system cost compared to an EMR?

EHR vs. EMR pricing can vary widely based on features, implementation and support. In general, EHR systems tend to cost more than EMRs due to their expanded capabilities and integration options; however, EHRs are more likely to generate a beneficial ROI than limited EMRs. 

As the healthcare industry undergoes rapid digital transformation, many providers prioritize transitioning to electronic health records (EHRs) to streamline workflows, reduce human errors, improve data security and more. However, implementing EHR systems isn’t without its challenges. You’re not alone if you know you must take the plunge but aren’t sure what features to look for or how to orchestrate the transition.

Understanding what electronic medical health record systems involve, what the technology can do for you, the challenges of transitioning to an EHR, the regulatory requirements and strategies for successful adoption is essential for a cost-efficient transition. Let’s take a closer look.

Understanding the Meaning of EHR in Healthcare

First things first — what is EHR in healthcare?

EHR, or electronic health record, is a digital version of a patient’s medical record. It includes essential data like medical history, diagnoses, medications and treatment plans. EHR systems enable healthcare providers to assess, update and share patient information across digital platforms to improve care delivery and operational efficiency.

You may wonder, “How do EHRs differ from electronic medical records (EMRs)?”

Unlike EHRs, EMRs don’t offer interoperability and data-sharing capabilities. EHRs provide a holistic view of a patient’s health, while EMRs focus on patient interactions within a single practice. Moreover, EHRs support data portability across different healthcare systems, while EMRs are typically confined to a specific provider.

How Does EHR in Healthcare Work?

EHR systems in healthcare offer a centralized and secure digital platform for storing, managing, assessing and sharing patient health information. They facilitate safe and seamless data exchange among healthcare providers with these key capabilities:

Secure Data Storage and Access

Electronic health record systems store patient data in a centralized location, allowing healthcare providers to review and update records in real time. They offer access control features, allowing only authorized personnel like doctors, nurses and administrative staff to retrieve sensitive patient information. Additionally, edits in a patient record are synchronized with connected software in real time to ensure access to consistent and accurate information.

Interoperability and Process Automation

Healthcare providers can integrate their electronic health records systems with other software to automate workflows and reduce manual processes, such as data entry, to minimize human errors and potentially life-threatening delays. For example, you may integrate your EHR with Clarity Clinical Documentation™ to streamline fax management. The solution automatically transfers information in faxed documents to patient records to reduce administrative workload and improve data accuracy. eFax Unite™, by contrast, enhances interoperability by combining cloud-based faxing with a HIPAA-secure, HL7- and FHIR-compliant platform. 

Ordering and Decision Support

EHR vendors often incorporate tools like Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) and Clinical Decision Support (CDS) to help practices standardize and streamline workflows. For example, CPOE enables healthcare providers to order medications, lab tests and procedures directly within an EHR platform, reducing transcription errors. Meanwhile, CDS tools analyze patient data against the latest medical research to help healthcare providers make informed decisions about treatments and diagnoses.

8 Core Components of EHR Systems in Healthcare

An EHR system combines these core components to provide a complete, accessible view of a patient’s health:

1. Patient medical history: Record a patient’s medical conditions, allergies, surgeries and family history to give providers health context for informed decision-making.
2. Diagnoses and problem lists: Document current and past diagnoses to help healthcare providers track chronic conditions and guide ongoing treatment plans.
3. Medications: Provide up-to-date records of all prescribed and previously taken medications to ensure safe prescribing practices and prevent adverse drug interactions or duplicate prescriptions.
4. Treatment plans: Document recommended treatments, procedures and follow-up care, allowing all involved healthcare professionals to follow a unified care approach.
5. Laboratory and test results: Centralize lab results, imaging studies and diagnostic tests to give providers access to historical and current results for trend analysis and accurate diagnoses.
6. ePrescribing: Allow providers to send prescriptions directly to pharmacies, reducing errors from handwritten prescriptions and improving medication management.
7. Care coordination and communication tools: Facilitate seamless communication among healthcare providers to ensure continuity of care, especially for patients with complex conditions.
8. Secure data storage and accessibility: Securely store patient information per data protection standards while allowing providers to access records in real-time and from various locations to enhance collaborative care and shorten response time.

The Advantages of Electronic Health Records in Modern Healthcare

EHR systems help providers enhance patient care, streamline operations, improve communication and secure sensitive data. Here are the primary benefits of using EHR in healthcare:

Improved Patient Care

Consolidated health information and comprehensive health tracking offer a holistic view, enabling healthcare providers to track, diagnose and monitor patient health. Meanwhile, EHRs support patient portals to provide patients with direct, secure access to their health data, empowering them to become active participants in their care. Additionally, integration with tools like Clarity CD ensures that faxed patient information is processed quickly and accurately for timely decision-making. 

Increased Operational Efficiency

EHRs automate data entry and repetitive processes to reduce errors and facilitate workflows, freeing clinicians and staff from administrative tasks to focus on care delivery. Many EHRs also incorporate AI-powered technologies to streamline operations. For example, Clarity CD links faxed documents to patient records, turning unstructured information into structured data and securely routes it to the appropriate patient record without human intervention, enhancing accuracy and productivity. eFax Unite enhances workflow efficiency by routing digital faxes and scanned documents directly into patient records with minimal setup. This automation eliminates the need for manual data entry, speeds up document processing, and ensures that all patient-related information is immediately accessible within the EHR.

Enhanced Data Security

Reputable EHR vendors adhere to rigorous security regulations (e.g., HIPAA) to protect sensitive medical records and patient information. These platforms offer the latest security features, including encryption, audit trails, access control, multi-factor authentication and automatic updates, to safeguard against unauthorized access. 

Streamlined Communication and Coordination

An ERH system enables multiple healthcare providers to access and share patient data for seamless collaboration. Meanwhile, interoperability with Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) supports secure sharing of patient information across disparate healthcare systems to ensure care continuity. Moreover, document-handling tools like Clarity CD allow facilities to link faxed documents with patient files, minimizing the risks of misplacing information and delays caused by manual processes.

Understanding Challenges in EHR Implementation

Implementing electronic health record systems is a substantial undertaking and healthcare organizations must address challenges related to cost, training, integration and more to ensure successful adoption and long-term ROI. Let’s review the key challenges of EHR implementation in healthcare and how you may address them:

High Costs and Budget Constraints

Implementing a robust EHR system can be financially prohibitive, especially for smaller practices. Healthcare organizations must consider the initial investment while allocating a sufficient budget for ongoing training, updates, technical support and system maintenance. Fortunately, programs like the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs can help mitigate these costs, offering financial support to encourage EHR adoption among providers.

Training and User Adoption

Effective use of EHR systems requires comprehensive training, and the learning curve can be steep for less tech-savvy staff members. Besides ensuring technical competence, leadership must implement change management with comprehensive employee education, training and support. Also, choose a platform with intuitive user interfaces and workflows to reduce frustration, promote user adoption and minimize the friction toward a successful transition.

Interoperability and System Integration

Seamless data exchange across healthcare providers hinges upon EHR interoperability. While the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) certifies EHR systems that meet interoperability standards like FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) and HL7, variations in implementation and challenges in aligning multiple systems (e.g., legacy software) can create technical barriers, making integration complex, costly and time-consuming.

Data Privacy and Security Concerns

EHRs contain highly sensitive patient information, and providers must prevent data theft, unauthorized access and file tampering to ensure privacy and HIPAA compliance. The good news is that reputable EHR vendors offer robust cybersecurity features to help healthcare organizations protect their data, enforce governance policies, support data integrity, implement monitoring and minimize errors, data leaks and breaches.

Navigating Legal and Regulatory Frameworks Governing EHR Systems

Privacy and data security are critical considerations in EHR implementation. Healthcare providers must adhere to regulatory frameworks to protect patient data and uphold the integrity of healthcare practices. Here are the key laws and regulations governing EHR implementation in healthcare practices:

1. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) sets strict guidelines to protect patient health information in the U.S., mandating healthcare providers and EHR systems to implement safeguards like data encryption, access controls and audit trails to prevent unauthorized access, use or disclosure of patient data.
2. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) establishes comprehensive guidelines for data privacy and protection, including obtaining patient consent and ensuring data portability, for organizations handling the data of EU citizens. Under this law, healthcare providers must use an EHR that allows patients to access their health data and request erasure.
3. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act incentivizes healthcare providers in the U.S. to adopt and meaningfully use EHR systems through financial rewards. It also mandates providers to notify affected individuals and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) of data breaches.
4. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Interoperability and Patient Access Rule requires healthcare providers and payers participating in Medicare and Medicaid programs to offer patients easy access to their health data. Therefore, EHR systems must support interoperability across healthcare networks.

Health information management (HIM) professionals ensure that their organization’s EHR systems adhere to these regulations. They should implement data governance policies to protect patient information and ensure data integrity. For example, they must monitor EHR systems to verify compliance with evolving regulations and perform audits to assess data protection practices.

Strategies for Successful EHR Adoption

Transitioning to an EHR system is a significant undertaking that requires strategic planning, change management and ongoing support. Healthcare organizations must approach the transition methodically, addressing technical and human factors:

Select the Right EHR Solution

Evaluate your needs and priorities based on clinical, administrative and reporting requirements. Engage stakeholders in the software selection process to align functionalities with workflows. Also, assess an EHR vendor’s reliability, compliance with relevant standards (e.g., ISO/HL7), system interoperability, scalability and data security capabilities.

Plan the Implementation Process

Adopt a phased approach and prepare thorough documentation to minimize disruptions and manage risks. Set clear goals, timelines and realistic milestones. Assess implementation readiness and identify infrastructure or staffing gaps. Then, allocate resources and assign responsibilities with leadership involvement and support.

Provide Staff Training

Improve user adoption with role-specific training that reflects daily tasks and workflows. Offer multiple formats (e.g., in-person sessions, e-learning modules, job aids) to accommodate diverse learning styles. Implement a help desk or support system for troubleshooting and continuous assistance post-implementation.

Adapt and Optimize Clinical Workflows

Map existing procedures and compare then with new EHR-driven processes. Implement change management strategies to address resistance and involve users in workflow redesign to minimize disruptions while enhancing clinical efficiency and patient safety. Also, monitor and refine workflows continuously based on user feedback and performance data.

Looking Forward: The Evolution of EHR in Healthcare

Future EHRs will go beyond documentation and data retrieval to actively support clinical decision-making. By integrating advanced analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, EHRs will help providers predict health risks and deliver real-time, evidence-based recommendations. Additionally, EHRs will move toward greater interoperability and standardization to unify patient records and improve the continuity of care.

The future of EHRs will focus on patient-centric innovations, such as expanded patient portals, integration with wearable health devices and remote monitoring technologies and support for personalized medicine using genomic and lifestyle data. Finally, advances in cloud technologies and edge computing will offer greater security, scalability, flexibility, reliability and cost-efficiency, allowing secure access from anywhere to deliver quality healthcare to more people and places.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the primary function of EHRs?

The primary function of an EHR solution is to digitally collect, store and manage patient health information in a centralized, accessible system. EHRs streamline documentation, support clinical decision-making, enable data sharing among authorized healthcare providers and improve the coordination and quality of patient care across various settings.

What are the examples of EHR data?

EHR data includes a broad range of clinical and administrative information, such as patient demographics, medical histories, diagnoses, medications, allergies, immunization records, lab results, imaging reports, treatment plans and physician notes.

Why is EHR better than paper records?

EHRs offer numerous advantages over paper records. These include faster access to patient data, improved accuracy, enhanced security and streamlined information-sharing among providers. They also support data analytics, reduce the risk of lost or illegible records, simplify workflows and help meet regulatory and quality reporting requirements.

What are the legal concerns surrounding electronic medical records?

Data privacy, security and compliance are the primary legal concerns. Healthcare organizations must ensure their EHR systems meet stringent regulations such as HIPAA and GDPR to protect against data breaches, maintain accurate and tamper-proof records and provide clear audit trails to support accountability and legal defensibility.

What are the 3 types of EHR?

Providers may consider physician-hosted systems (maintained on-site by the healthcare provider), remotely hosted systems (managed off-site by third-party vendors or data centers) and cloud-based systems (delivered via the internet with real-time access and scalability). They vary in costs, control and infrastructure requirements.