Why Planning Is Key When Adopting An EMR System
Financially, it has never been easier for the small medical practice to purchase and begin using an EMR system.
This is mainly due to the recent American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which includes an incentive plan that provides doctors who show "meaningful use" of EMR software $44,000 to $64,000 in Medicare or Medicaid payments.
The idea: adopt electronic medical records in your practice now, and the Government will essentially pay (over time) for adoption.
The stimulus plan works not only for doctors, but for the healthcare industry itself, which has needed medical record standardization for some time.
But what many doctors don't understand is that adopting an EMR system is different than adopting most software products.
In fact, in order to achieve the fastest return on investment with EMR, doctors need to ensure the adoption plan is detailed, precise and complete.
Fact: 95 out of 100 electronic medical records software vendors would love to sell you an EMR system and then head for the hills.
And frankly, many vendors actually WILL do this.
But the representative of a real product with real training and support knows that creating a plan for adoption is key to not only your use of an electronic medical records program, but to potential future referrals.
A comprehensive plan must include the following to enable a small practice to succeed: Workflow Design - This isn't simply a word processing program - it's a different way of operating.
An EMR system requires that the behaviors of your staff change in order to benefit from the efficiencies available in the program.
This means assistants may be preparing patient records before appointments.
It means that every move your practice makes with paper medical records will disappear.
This is always a key "surprise" for practices, and must be dealt with first.
Training - No matter the ease of use, everyone on staff, including the physician, must have a superb working knowledge of the system.
This benefits not only the short-term, as the program is picked up faster, but also over the longer term, as lack of training has the potential to derail the adoption altogether because of negative feelings towards the product.
Planning for training also means you must decide whether to have a trainer visit, consider remote training or send your staff to a destination.
This may mean closing the practice for a short period.
An experienced EMR vendor will be ready to help you with this.
Mentorship - Appointing an "EMR Mentor" helps during the adoption and training process.
This Mentor should be counted upon to have the greatest knowledge of the product, and be able to help staff members that are having difficulties, or who are unused to using computers in the workplace.
Finding this staff member can be a process, but also can save the practice thousands of dollars in support and training costs by alleviating the need to get on the phone with the vendor whenever a bump in the road comes along.
It is critical for any small practice looking to add EMR to their practice that this is not simply an application.
A properly adopted electronic medical record system is just that: a system where software and staff interact to create efficiencies, and in the end, return on investment.
This is mainly due to the recent American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which includes an incentive plan that provides doctors who show "meaningful use" of EMR software $44,000 to $64,000 in Medicare or Medicaid payments.
The idea: adopt electronic medical records in your practice now, and the Government will essentially pay (over time) for adoption.
The stimulus plan works not only for doctors, but for the healthcare industry itself, which has needed medical record standardization for some time.
But what many doctors don't understand is that adopting an EMR system is different than adopting most software products.
In fact, in order to achieve the fastest return on investment with EMR, doctors need to ensure the adoption plan is detailed, precise and complete.
Fact: 95 out of 100 electronic medical records software vendors would love to sell you an EMR system and then head for the hills.
And frankly, many vendors actually WILL do this.
But the representative of a real product with real training and support knows that creating a plan for adoption is key to not only your use of an electronic medical records program, but to potential future referrals.
A comprehensive plan must include the following to enable a small practice to succeed: Workflow Design - This isn't simply a word processing program - it's a different way of operating.
An EMR system requires that the behaviors of your staff change in order to benefit from the efficiencies available in the program.
This means assistants may be preparing patient records before appointments.
It means that every move your practice makes with paper medical records will disappear.
This is always a key "surprise" for practices, and must be dealt with first.
Training - No matter the ease of use, everyone on staff, including the physician, must have a superb working knowledge of the system.
This benefits not only the short-term, as the program is picked up faster, but also over the longer term, as lack of training has the potential to derail the adoption altogether because of negative feelings towards the product.
Planning for training also means you must decide whether to have a trainer visit, consider remote training or send your staff to a destination.
This may mean closing the practice for a short period.
An experienced EMR vendor will be ready to help you with this.
Mentorship - Appointing an "EMR Mentor" helps during the adoption and training process.
This Mentor should be counted upon to have the greatest knowledge of the product, and be able to help staff members that are having difficulties, or who are unused to using computers in the workplace.
Finding this staff member can be a process, but also can save the practice thousands of dollars in support and training costs by alleviating the need to get on the phone with the vendor whenever a bump in the road comes along.
It is critical for any small practice looking to add EMR to their practice that this is not simply an application.
A properly adopted electronic medical record system is just that: a system where software and staff interact to create efficiencies, and in the end, return on investment.
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