One of the biggest changes in the healthcare industry over the last few years has been the implementation and use of Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems. EMR systems have changed the way that patient medical records are collected, stored, utilized, and released with the intention of providing patients better overall health care and physicians and their staffs with more efficient day to day work flows. While electronic medical records have brought a long a lot of promise with them, successfully implementing and using the EMR systems has been difficult for many healthcare facilities. The federal government is strongly urging medical facilities across the country to utilize EMR systems and will financially punish those facilities who do not comply. If your facility is in the process of switching over to an EMR system, then you should follow the steps below to ensure that the process goes smoothly.
- Determine If Your Practice Is Ready To Make The Switch
In this beginning stage, it is recommended that you take a step back and assess your practice. Determine what the goals and needs of the practice are, what the financial situation is and if you can indeed afford the EMR system, and if your facility has the technological capabilities to implement the system. Ensure that you have answers to all these questions and if not, then you will need to make some adjustments to your practice which leads us to the next step.
- Develop A Plan for Implementing the EMR System
In this stage you will be building off the information that you gathered from the assessment of your practice. We advise that one of the first things you should do in this stage is establish a project manager who will be in charge of overseeing the EMR implementation process. The process will go smoother if one person is in charge and can solely focus on the implementation. Once a manger has been established the next thing you should do is analyze your practice’s current workflow and determine how the workflow will be altered by the EMR system. Ideally, an EMR system should improve your workflow and make your practice more effective. The next thing you will want to consider here is who will be performing your chart abstraction for you which is the process where old paper based records are transferred in to the EMR system. In some cases the EMR vendor can perform the abstraction for you, but in other cases you may have to handle it yourself or outsource the task to a third party expert.
- Determine Which EMR System is the Best Fit for Your Practice
This step is obviously one of the most important steps in the EMR implementation process. The EMR system that you decide to use should enable your facility to reach the goals that you established in the planning phase and should be able to handle the tasks that you determined your new EMR system would take care of.Every member of your facility’s team should work closely together to determine which EMR system will fit the practice best. When selecting an EMR vendor we suggest that you provide the vendor with test cases to see how the software would handle the situation. Different EMR systems have different strengths and weaknesses so pay close attention to how each system handles the cases and decide which one you believe will work best with your practice. Other things to consider when selecting an EMR system include: pricing, the amount of implementation support you will receive from the vendor, the amount of interoperability that the system has with other software and EMR systems, security measures, the vendor’s reputation and status, and if the EMR system will enable you to achieve “meaningful use” requirements.
- Implement New EMR System and Train Facility’s Staff
Now that you have selected which EMR system you will be using you are finally ready to implement the system. The EMR Vendor will install the system on all computers in your facility and ensure that everything is working properly. The next step that will need to be handles is the chart abstraction. Chart abstraction can sometimes be a lengthy and difficult process so if the vendor does not do it for you then you may want to consider using a professional third party service to handle the task. Once the old paper records have been transferred in to your EMR system, ensure that the vendor trains all physicians and staff members at your facility thoroughly on the ins and outs of the EMR platform. This step is critical to your success with the EMR system. After all staff members have been trained, it is a strongly advised that your practice runs through some mock situations that involve the use of the EMR. This will help everyone gain more confidence with the system and will help your staff spot any potential problems early on.
- Achieve “Meaningful Use” With Your EMR System
The whole purpose for implementing the new EMR systems is to achieve what the government has labeled “meaningful use.” The idea behind “meaningful use” is that using EMR systems should lead to better care for patients and more efficient operations for medical facilities. The Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs provide financial rewards to facilities that install EMR systems and achieve “meaningful use” with them. With the promise of financial incentives, better patient care, and an improved work flow, your facility should really make “meaningful use” a top priority because in the end, everyone will benefit from this.
Need Help With Your EMR System?
If you are having issues with your current EMR system or are having trouble with the installation of a new system, My Retired Doctor can provide you the assistance that you need. We can assist your facility with any aspect of an EMR system, from the release of electronic medical records to the chart abstraction process. Call or contact us today to learn how we can help your facility make the most of your EMR system and achieve “meaningful use.”