Electronic Dental Records Analysis

680 Words2 Pages

The application of Electronic Dental Records is being evolving for a while now. In its beginnings, it was merely paper records being faxed over between one or more entities. Today, we count with Electronic Dental Records management systems that are powerful enough to even store complete sets of radiographies and Cone Beam Computer Tomography’s (CBCTs). Some applications of these systems include but are not limited to the reading, edition, and storage of patient’s information, dental needs, history of dental treatments, etc. An Electronic Dental Records system's ability to capture detailed clinical information in a highly structured manner can enable analysis for quality assessment, identification of areas for improvement, and the design of …show more content…

When dental care providers have access to complete and accurate information, patients receive better dental care, and Electronic Dental Records have proven to improve the ability to diagnose diseases and reduce errors, improving patient outcomes. Furthermore, a national survey of doctors’ evidence that 94% of providers report that their Electronic Health Records makes records readily available at point of care, 88% of providers report that their Electronic Health Records produces clinical benefits for the practice, and 75% of providers report that their Electronic Health Records allows them to deliver better patient care (HealthIT.gov, n.d.). Another of the great benefits to highlight is the improved care coordination provided with Electronic Dental Records. This is achieved by decreasing the fragmentation of care as Electronic Dental Records have the potential to integrate and organize patient dental information and facilitate its instant distribution among all authorized providers involved in a patient's care. This is especially important when a patient is seeing multiple specialists, making transitions between care settings, or receiving treatment in emergency …show more content…

One of the main competitive advantages, if not the main one, is the integration of medical and dental practices. According to Okuji (2016), “[...] the advantage of this model is that it fully integrates medical and dental practices for the benefit and convenience of it patients. The patient care is coordinated in a one-stop shopping experience with presumably better health outcomes [...]”. The ideas of bringing dental care and medical care together under the same roof can also be seen as a big competitive strategy to gain an edge over practices that only offer one service or the other. Another of these competitive strategies that is greatly influenced by Electronic Dental Records and Electronic Health Records is the creation and maintenance of a patient-centered care environment. This strategy revolves around the idea that each individual patient is a customer who needs to receive a service and utility from their experience in the care delivery system. As far as competitive forces go, the only ones associated with Electronic Dental Records are buyer power, competitive rivalry, and threat of new entry. Buyer Power refers to an assessment of how easy it is for buyers to drive the prices down, competitive rivalry refers to the number and capability of

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