What is a clinical charting tool?

Documenting a patient’s medical history, visit notes, and treatment plan is an often time-consuming but always necessary part of treating that patient. There are a number of methods the independent physician can use for recording this information. Paper files are the traditional way to keep patient records. A clinical charting tool, such as that found in an electronic health record (EHR) can help the independent physician be more efficient and help ensure patient records are more accurate.

Medical records kept on paper in file folders can get lost or damaged. The independent physician searching for information within those records spends valuable time flipping through a stack of papers for the one piece of patient data that could make the difference in a diagnosis. When a specialty provider or laboratory is involved in the patient’s care, requesting and waiting for those records can create problems for both patient and physician.

An EHR’s clinical charting tool makes those records available to the independent physician and to clinical staff with the touch of a screen. Easy access to the patient’s medical history and notes input by other healthcare provides gives the physician more time to spend with the patient during the visit.

Elation Health goes one step further, providing templates for the physician to use that encourage consistent workflows across providers and staff by clearly laying out the steps and questions to be addressed. Independent physicians can export more than one template into a visit note at once to allow for more time-efficient customization. Users can include CPT codes and billing items into Elation’s templates to streamline visit note sign off. In addition, physicians can associate document tags for easier and more consistent reporting.

Another time-saver for the physician is to empower the clinical team to input a patient’s medical information into the EHR. For example, a medical assistant can use the clinical charting tool to update the patient’s record. With the assistant in the room during the visit, documenting the physician’s notes in the clinical charting tool, the physician can focus more fully on the patient, enabling better outcomes for patient and physician.