The Resident Care departments of Assisted Livings are steadily replacing their paper records to track, verify and document resident care, assessments, and medications with the eMar (Electronic Medication Administration Record). This has been met with some resistance as clinical directors, used to paper charting, have been slow to give up the paper files. So, what are the benefits of replacing paper and is the change worth the effort?
Benefits of an eMAR:
- Reduced Medication Errors: The “Five Rights” of administration – right resident, medication, dose, route, and time- are enforced by barcode or QR scanning. This brings a significant reduction in missed doses or documentation errors.
- Increased Efficiency: An eMAR automates routine charting, complex orders, and shift-change handoffs. This frees caregivers to spend more time on direct resident care. Time sorting paper, filing and stacking is also greatly reduced along with the errors that can go with it.
- Direct Pharmacy Integration: Provides seamless connection with pharmacies to automate refill requests, scheduled cycle fills, and updates to resident’s records without monthly paper recaps. This direct communication ensures all MARs are precise and up to date.
- Improved Oversight: Medication management involves a whole team -physicians, pharmacists, residents, family members, and caregivers. eMAR centralizes all medication information to ensure accuracy and keep all parties updated. eMAR software can also efficiently generate audits and accurate reports to review orders such as controlled substances.
- Regulatory Compliance: Generates instant, audit-ready logs, digital tracking for narcotics and state-specific reports to greatly simplify health inspections and surveys reducing the stress that comes with it.
With some planning and staff training, implementing eMAR into the workflow of today’s Assisted Living resident care, will streamline workflow, add a layer of safety against medication errors, and give more time for direct care back to the residents.
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