In every industry, there are always those who seek to position themselves as the keepers of the nomenclature. Everybody else wonders what all the fuss is about. Granted, what’s in a name?

The value of standardized terminology lies in making sure that we are all on the same page, so to speak, when we are discussing complex issues. EMRs (electronic medical records) are certainly high on the awareness level of most physicians today. But what about EHRs and ePHRs?

Software Advice has a nice summary of the the difference between these and other related terms. Increasingly there are workgroups that are attempting to standardize the phraseology in an area comprised of a multitude of disparate - but interrelated - industries, from medical practices to hospitals to software vendors to insurance companies.

Soon, we will all become facile at copying our Google ePHR file and giving it to our physician for her EMR, which is linked to the RHIO’s EHR….

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. (more…)

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 (more…)

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 (more…)

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. (more…)

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

• What to do with all of those paper forms
• Don’t reinvent the wheel - stay up-to-date with your EMR software’s updates
• The structure of your training process and implementation rollout

Ask Bob where we try to stump our seasoned practice administrator - what if a star employee shows up wearing a tongue ring?

Preview of our upcoming Expert Teleseminar Series - DIsaster Recovery & Business Continuity Planning

This Issue (length 11:20)

(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)

There is a nice compendium of resources on electronic health records recently posted on Nursing Online Education Database entitled The Ultimate Guide to Taking Control of Your Health Records by Alisa Miller. This includes not only sites and tools for consumers but also for medical practices.

If you don’t think do-it-yourself electronic health records is going to be big in the near future, take note that none other than Google and Microsoft are getting into the act. True, they currently offer free resources for consumers but already there are companies looking for ways to make a buck off of the EHR industry.

Medical practices in competitive niches may want to consider some type of portal, either as part of their EMR system or in conjunction with their website, in order to communicate more effectively with their patients. This could be anything from offering email communication with physicians to allowing patients to access their medical records, just like Google.

A frequent discussion among colleagues, especially if they are in the same group, is whether or not a practice will ever realize a return on their investment in an EMR system. Of course, this is beside the point that the government is mandating the use of EMR by within the next ten years. While hospitals and larger clinics have already done the number crunching, and believe that EMR systems will more than pay for themselves, it may be more difficult for the average-sized practice to calculate their savings.

Nevertheless, an article on Software Advice offers some more reasons to consider making the switch to paperless, including

1. Savings on chart pulling costs. Several studies have calculated that it can cost as much as $4 to pull or create a paper chart. Beth Israel Hospital in (more…)

Perhaps one of the most challenging aspects of implementing an electronic medical records system (EMR) is managing its effect on the staff.

According to a study by executive search firm Korn/Ferry International, one of the most common mistakes that executives make when joining a company or making changes is failing to properly read the existing corporate or office culture. An example would be a control-oriented manager coming into a company with a collaborative culture, leading to tension and resistance.

In this column, I’ll explain how to adapt the existing office culture to facilitate the staff’s acceptance of a switch from paper records to EMR.

(more…)

So, you’ve now made the decision to get your office running on an electronic medical records (EMR) system and you’ve chosen the specific software you want. Before you start making any major software or hardware purchases, however, you should have someone help you implement EMR into your practice - an IT (information technology) consultant or firm.

While a larger practice may have the resources for full-time IT personnel, what is a smaller group or solo practice to do?

IT is not just one narrow field, but many categories rolled into one, just as medicine comprises many distinct specialties. So, you may require different IT services depending on your practice’s needs.

But first, there are some things you need to consider before hiring your potential IT consultant or firm: (more…)