Explaination of PHP vs. EHR

Patient education is so important today especially when it comes to communicating with your physician. You need to almost sometimes be a mind reader or even a translator to determine what maybe wrong with you. Thank Goodness for electronic medical records.


Electronic Medical Records (or as some refer to as EHR Electronic Health Record) is important to know and important have your physician help you understand. In order for good health standards, certain documents, labs, prescriptions, images, and clinical data will be in your electronic chart. In the past everything used to be in a manila folder, parsed off by color coded separators. Now everything is stored safely and securely via hospital or practice database. Such vendors for EHRs are Allscripts, NextGen, eClinicalWorks, EPIC and GE Centricity (the big 5).

PHP or Patient Health Portal is an application source that allows the patient to initiate conversations, set up appointments, renew prescriptions, etc. directly with the practice staff or provider, without having to go in for a face to face visit. This system is usually encrypted from the patient side as well as the provider side, to ensure patient privacy security. The really nice thing about these applications is that they are accessible via web browser and usually only require a user id and password to work.

There are some questions you should be asking your provider/staff at the practice to ensure your safety and privacy; I will list below.

The average EHR implementation will run approximately $25,000-$40,000 per provider, so don't think this is an overnight process, and that it comes cheap. The average investment and implementation cost of a PHP is much less.

That can range from $10,000-25,000 for the complete set up. But keep in mind, in order to have a useful PHP, there must be an EHR on the other side.

Instructions

Things you’ll need:

• Checklist of symptoms

• secure email setup

• Provider using Health Information Technology

1. Step 1

Ask your Provider to share or review your chart with you to make sure all the information is correct and updated. This should be done on a yearly basis. Taking time for a 30 minute visit is better than the alternative if data is wrong and you receive the wrong medication because you didn't let the provider know of an medication allergy . "Be honest with your Doctor, it serves you better in the long run."

2. Step 2

Secure Database on location and off location back up

Make sure the software or EHR is CCHIT certified. CMS (Medicaid )puts out strict guidelines in order for these softwares to contain certain secure administrational features that include such things as integratable interfaces (HL7 code that allows other softwares to share information), ability to lock down notes and charts to none authorized personal, and a secure database location.

3. Step 3

Make sure when signing up for the PHP, that the system requires a multi sequence password, example: P@1ti3nt; letters, symbols and numerics. This will allow your password to be a harder password to crack. There are a few that contain these features; Medem's i-Health, Vecna Medical, and Meditab.

4. Step 4

Make sure you as a patient take personal responsibility for your health. Remember, the physician and staff are there to resolve issues not babysit what you eat, when you exercise and if you are taking your medications. Good patient care begins with the patient.

Tips & Warnings

• For more information use the reference links below to help answer questions in more detail.

• Please keep in mind that CCHIT certification changes every year so software certifications maybe outdated, but know that you can always check the CCHIT website for listings.

Resources

• CCHIT Resource

• Health IT Gov

• Meaningful Use