The Evolution From EMR to EHR: Know the Differences (2024)

Overview

You may hear EHR and EMR used synonymously, but do they actually mean the same thing? And how do EDRs fit into the picture? There are important differences.

Additionally, why is it important for a dental management systems to work with EHRs to share patient records and data while still having efficient dental workflows that facilitate effective patient care?

Here’s what you should know.

What is an EMR?

Electronic medical records (EMRs) came first, and early EMRs were simple medical records. Although EMRs are an improvement over paper charts, they have many drawbacks, since they are simply a digital version that can be used within one clinic.

EMRs:

• Allow clinicians within a clinic to identify patients for screenings or follow-up visits, track data and monitor quality of care — improving on paper records
• Contain the treatment record and notes from providers at one practice
• Provide a digital record, but the patient’s information remains siloed because an EMR can’t be easily shared

How are EHRs different?

Electronic health records (EHRs) are the next generation of EMRs. EHRs built on the idea of a digital record to create a shareable patient record focused on a broader view of total patient health.

EHRs:

• Were designed to be shared between all authorized clinicians involved in a patient’s care
• Can be accessed by the patients themselves
• Can follow a patient wherever they are treated
• Give providers a more comprehensive picture of patient health so they can make more informed decisions that enable better care and outcomes
• Meet the requirements for Meaningful Use incentive programs as administered by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
• Can meet the required usability improvements for the Cures Act when certified
• Make your practice eligible for certain grant opportunities

EHRs are recommended over EMRs by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), a U.S. government office that was established to promote a national health IT infrastructure. Because EHRs are shareable and can be used for Meaningful Use, they have increasingly become the standard in the healthcare industry. Reference: https://www.healthit.gov/buzz-blog/electronic-health-and-medical-records/emr-vs-ehr-difference

Moreover, while EMRs improve quality of care, properly shared EHR data can also enhance patient treatments and outcomes overall.

EDR (or dental EHR)

Electronic dental records (EDRs) are the dental version of EHRs, which is why they are often called dental EHRs. They give dentists the ability to efficiently keep records that integrate with medical systems. Over the last several years, EDRs have seen increased adoption.

Where Does Dentrix Enterprise Fit?

Dentrix Enterprise is a comprehensive practice management system that utilizes a dental EHR. Using standards called Health Level Seven—or HL7® for short—for interoperability, Dentrix Enterprise enables dental teams to share their patients’ dental records with other providers and medical systems (and can also receive vital patient information from EHRs). HL7 is the leading interoperability standard for health information exchange, allowing medical and dental systems to “talk” to each other.

While integration means that applications connect to access data, interoperability goes beyond this by enabling a real-time exchange of data. Dentrix Enterprise enables providers to give more holistic patient care with software that interoperates with more than 40 EHRs and additional medical solutions, such as athenahealth, Allscripts, Centricity, Cerner, eClinicalWorks, Epic, NextGen, Greenway Health and more.

Dental practices can save time and avoid frustration by using Dentrix Enterprise to electronically share patients’ dental records and other important data that includes:

• Scheduling
• Billing
• Demographics
• Orders
• Clinical notes

Dentrix Enterprise uses industry-recognized data transfer protocols, including C-CDA (Consolidated Clinical Document Architecture) files for continuity of care. These protocols are also part of meeting HL7, the internationally established standards for transferring and sharing data.

A single platform

Clues to the main differences between the EMR, EHR and EDR can be found in the middle initials. While they are all digital records, just remember that an EMR can only exist within a single practice, so an EHR and its dental version—the EDR—offer many strengths when it comes to sharing data. These strengths derive from interoperability and can greatly impact overall patient outcomes.

Dentrix Enterprise enables dentists to see the full picture of each patient’s health with a comprehensive practice management solution that brings all of your sites and providers together in a single, interoperable system.