Medical practices that are planning to get an electronic medical records (EMR) system in the near future will also need to consider whether they will be keeping their existing practice management software (EPM). Many factors come into play and we will discuss the pros and cons another time. For the purposes of our discussion, let’s assume you decided to upgrade to a new EPM that comes integrated with the new EMR system.

What do you do with all of the existing patient insurance and demographic data?

Keep it or throw it all away?

First, a little background. It is the year 1998 and businesses around the world are beginning to panic about the impending specter of the Y2K (year 2000) crisis. You remember – all computers will stop working because nobody thought to put the year in four digits instead of ‘19’ followed by two digits. Read the rest of this entry »

As I wrote in previous posts, the technical side  of the electronic medical records (EMR) implementation process, namely which EMR system to use, is probably the least critical component.

The most important things are ultimately related to the people side or what is known as ‘change management’. For EMR, this boils down to the implementation plan (which we discussed earlier) and the training plan.

The EMR training plan can be broken down into three steps:

1) Identify current skill levels. Many of your employees are probably recent high school graduates and Read the rest of this entry »

EMR Update 3 - follow along as Ocala Eye implements its EMR system

This Month:

• Hardware for EMR systems - balancing efficiency with cost
• The proper way to set up a wireless network in your office

This Issue (length 13:04)

(click on the Play Now link below then the play button or Download the file. You can also right-click on the AudioMP3 button to save to your computer)

We’ve all heard the proverb, “He who fails to plan, plans to fail.”

This is certainly the case in the majority of failed electronic medical records (EMR) implementations, and usually the physicians/ administrators/ owners (circle your choice) bear the responsibility. Since this may well be the most difficult (and expensive) project your medical practice will undertake, it literally pays to have a good plan in place.

Implementation of an EMR system is truly a formidable task and the logistics can be overwhelming. We realized that we would need an integrated plan that would tie together both the technical side of the project with training in order to maximize efficiency, making the best time and use of our staff and contracted help.

So we worked with a project manager to break our EMR implementation project down into major processes and then Read the rest of this entry »

Ask any doctor,  what is the first thing you should buy for an EMR implementation and the response will be, “The EMR Software, of course.”

Wrong! Ask any non-medical person involved with EMR implementation and his or her opinion would be that the EMR software is the last (or one of the last things) to choose.

But let’s assume that you already know that there are some basics that must be set up first, such as your building’s infrastructure, your network design, determining staff skill sets, etc. (If not, then check out this blog for previous posts on these topics before proceeding).

In this article, I¹ll discuss how to decide on both an EMR software vendor and the actual EMR software. Read the rest of this entry »

EMR Update - follow along as Ocala Eye implements its EMR system

This Month:

• Train the Trainers
• Utilize the “Gee Whiz” Factor
• The Who, What, Where, and How of Scanning Old Paper Records

This Issue (length 13:07)

(click on the Play Now link below then the play button or Download the file. You can also right-click on the AudioMP3 button to save to your computer)

In Part 1 of this topic, I discussed the key issue your practice must resolve before purchasing a phone system: what are your needs? Now let’s review the questions you need to ask yourself and why they are so important:

1. How many people and devices need to be on the phone at one time? Don’t forget that voice calls are not the only things which tie up your phone lines. Take an inventory of any peripheral devices which could possibly be in use concurrently with your staff: modems, fax or postage machines, credit card machines, or your security system.
2. How many calls at each location do you need to receive at one time? You don’t want to limit the number of lines you have and then have patients unable to get through. This will also help you determine if you need to have an actual call center set up. Read the rest of this entry »