Not so Fast – Examining eMR Options and Alternatives

Posted on March 16, 2011 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Look Before you Leap

By Shahid N. Shah MS

Because of all the talk about electronic medical records [EMRs] and medical records software, doctors have many reasons to start immediately looking for an EMR vendor.

But, try to resist that urge and look at broader non-EMR solutions that can help remove some of the non-clinical burdens from your staff.

Here are some examples from Chapter 13, in our new book: www.BusinessofMedicalPractice.com

  • Using Microsoft Office Outlook® or an online calendaring system like Google to maintain patient schedules. While most vendors of clinical scheduling will tell you that medical scheduling is too complex to be handled by non-medical scheduling systems, most small and medium sized physician practices can easily get by with free or very inexpensive and non-specialized scheduling tools. By using general-purpose scheduling tools you will find that you can use less expensive consultants or IT help to manage your patient scheduling technology needs.
  • Using off-the-shelf address book software such as those built into Microsoft Office®, the Windows® and Macintosh® operating systems, or online tools such as Google apps you can maintain complete patient and contact registries for managing your patient lists. While a patient registry may not give you all of the features and functions you need immediately they can grow to a system that will meet your needs over time.
  • Using physician practice management systems you can remove much of the financial bookkeeping and insurance record-keeping burdens from your staff. Unlike calendaring or address book functionality which can be adapted from non-medical systems, insurance claims and related bookkeeping is an area where you should choose specific software based on how your practice earns its revenue. For example if a majority of your claims are Medicare related, then you should choose software that is specifically geared towards government claims management. If however your revenue comes less from insurance and more from traditional cash or related means you can easily use small business accounting software like Quicken® or Microsoft accounting.
  • Using computer telephony technology you can integrate automatic call in and call out the services that can be tied to your phone system so that you can track phone calls or send out call reminders.
  • Using integrated medical devices that can capture, collect, and transmit physiological patient data you can reduce paper capture of vital signs and other clinical data so that your staff are freed to do other work.
  • Using e-mail, instant messaging, social networking, and other online advanced tools you can reduce the number of phone calls that your practice receives and needs to return and yet continue to improve the patient physician communication process. One of the most time-consuming parts of any office is the back-and-forth phone calls so any reduction in phone calls will yield significant productivity increases.

Assessment

Any other ideas?

Link: Front Matter BoMP – 3

Conclusion

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3 Responses

  1. Randy, on March 17, 2011 at 11:15 AM said:

    True or False

    Good post, but is it true that only one in five hospitals – and three in ten primary-care doctors – have a basic electronic medical record in the US?

    Randy

    Like

  2. Ken, on May 24, 2011 at 5:19 PM said:

    Health and Social Care in the UK

    The National Programme for IT in the NHS: an update on the delivery of detailed care records systems.

    The rate at which electronic care records systems are being put in place across the NHS under the National Programme for IT is falling far below expectations and the core aim that every patient should have an electronic care record under the Programme will not now be achieved.

    http://www.nao.org.uk/publications/1012/npfit.aspx

    Ken

    Like

  3. Ann Miller RN MHA, on January 24, 2012 at 5:45 AM said:

    Doc-Owners Find EHR Adoption More Taxing: According to New Survey

    Physicians who own their practices may require more help to implement electronic health records than those who do not, a new study finds. Using survey data from more than 150 physicians, taken during a Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative pilot, researchers from Boston-based not-for-profit system Partners HealthCare assessed physicians’ perceptions about the difficulties associated with EHR implementation.

    Of the respondents, more than half said implementation was “somewhat difficult,” while 35% called the EHR implementation process “very difficult.” Roughly a quarter of responding physicians who did not have any ownership stake in their practices said they considered implementation very difficult. But that share jumped to 38% for physicians with full or partial ownership.

    Source: Maureen McKinney, Modern Healthcare [1/20/12]

    Like

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