Choosing Electronic Medical Record Software
The idea of change isn't a welcome one for most physicians. Changing old habits and work flow can be a very scary process for doctors. Training on any new system can be an intimidating process. As a result, many physicians find themselves procrastinating and searching for the perfect electronic medical records solution that does everything with zero effort to implement. It's almost like a quest for the Holy Grail. However, in the meantime, they remain in a rut of inefficiency by continuing to handwrite or dictate their notes. Unfortunately, not only are handwritten notes and prescriptions extremely inefficient, they are notoriously illegible. According to the Institute of Safe Medicine Practices, illegible prescriptions result in more than 3 million preventable adverse drug effects each year in the U.S. Furthermore, since documentation requirements for physician reimbursement have become increasingly stringent, illegible notes can lead to significantly reduced income. They can also trigger time-consuming audits that ultimately result in costly penalties and refunds of payments back to the payers. This just adds one more layer of potential problems for physicians that continue with the traditional methodologies. Electronic medical records have emerged as a way to address these concerns. In fact, federal officials have recently announced a program slated for early 2008 that will urge doctors to incorporate electronic medical records into their practices. The program provides cash incentives to doctors from Medicare for switching to electronic medical record systems and providing the government with updates on quality improvement markers for their patients. Despite the fears amongst physicians resisting the switch to electronic medical records, it is possible to find EMR software with a low learning curve that will facilitate a smooth transition. Here are some questions to ask yourself when you begin your research. trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Some doctors have described these sorts of notes as "vending machine notes." EMR systems with customizable templates will allow you to create notes using your own words and style and will therefore more closely reflect your thoughts. Having customizable templates means that you will be able to save and reuse certain frequently used phrases, forms, procedural descriptions, prescriptions, etc., so that they don't have to be manually re-entered each time. Many EMR software programs do not allow much in the way of customization by the end user. In these instances if customization is even available, it must be done by the software company and is both prohibitively expensive and time consuming to deploy. This is another reason to test drive the system before you commit to a specific program. Well-designed EMR software should allow you to customize prescriptions, templates, chart format, follow-up letters and after-care instructions. Printing options for these items should also be customizable, yet simple and smooth to configure with minimal support. Will your EMR software allow multimedia attachments? Look for EMR software that allows you to attach multimedia like photographs, X-rays, scanned documents and ECGs to your patients' records. A picture is worth a thousand words and can describe injuries and other clinical findings much more accurately than words. Photographs can also more accurately and efficiently document changes in time over subsequent visits. Having scanned ECGs attached to visits makes it faster and more convenient to review and compare to prior ECGs since with only a few clicks of a mouse, you can have all the information you need for your patient. Not all EMR software is created equal. Accuracy, efficiency, intuitiveness and expense are all key factors you need to consider when choosing EMR software. If you make the right choice, you will soon find yourself using electronic medical records and wondering why it took you so long to make the change. If you keep waiting and searching for the Holy Grail of EMR software, you will only prolong the inefficiencies and inadequacies as well as the potential risks of your current methods. |
