When Tom Petty wrote the song The Waiting with the chorus that goes "the wa-ai-ting is the hardest part", he must have recalled his experience from a trip to the ER. Long hours of sitting uncomfortable, in pain or nauseous among others who are in worse condition than you is never pleasant. Some ERs are even downright dangerous, there's a notorious ER in an Oakland hospital that most people I know wouldn't go to even if their life depended on it. Thankfully, for non-life-threatening emergencies like broken bones, sprains, minor burns and lacerations, and cold and flu, there are urgent care clinics. With the help of electronic medical record urgent care software, doctors can examine patients more efficiently, cutting down patient wait time and keep the primary care provider informed of the patient's condition.
Contrary to popular belief, EMRs do have a place in urgent care clinics. The use of specialized EMRs in urgent care clinics cut down patient wait time significantly. Urgent care software is designed with rapid click-through screens. Although, fast click-through does not mean a compromised accuracy of data input. With features like fast-loading charts, urgent care-specific exam templates and seamless transmission of data from doctors to office staff, doctors can move from one patient to next in shorter amounts of time without actually spending less time with each patient.
Even if EMRs are compatible with the urgent care setting, a concern many have is about the continuity of care between urgent care and the primary care doctor. Keeping in mind that a trip to urgent care is most likely a one-time deal, the exclusion of information to the primary care doctor is never the intention. Urgent care software notifies the primary care doctor of their patient's encounter via e-faxing. Upon receiving the encounter notes, the primary care doctor can then decide the best course of action for follow-up care for the patient.
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