Important considerations when researching for EMR

EMR software ensures to make life easier for both doctors as well as patients, however, achievement of this ultimate goal to a large extent depends on selection of a right EMR for the practice.

Choosing from the wide variety of EMR applications available today on the market is no easy task. Cutting down the list of EMR software providers to a manageable level is the first thing you should do in order to make choosing the right EMR system vendor. Here are some considerations when researching your purchase of an EMR software system:

Certified EMR - A certified EMR has to pass through rigorous testing and quality standards process, ensuring a solid EMR software choice. Using a certified EMR is also important to receiving Federal Stimulus incentives.

Meaningful Use Knowledge - Ensuring that your EMR software vendor is incredibly well-versed in the concept of "Meaningful Use" is absolutely critical to any system purchase. The Federal Government stipulates that you must demonstrate "meaningful use" of your electronic medical record system.

Ease Of Use - The overall expense of adopting an EMR has so much to do with the ease of its use that it is frightening. Simple to use products cost far less to train your staff on, as well as slash future support costs in half or more.

ONC Certified EMR

ONC stands for Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act directs Office of National Coordinator to promote the meaningful use of EHR technology nationwide. Under the program, firstly to be an ONC-ATCB, the applicants need to pass through certain criteria.

Currently, the six organizations recognized by ONC as ATCBs are:

    * CCHIT
    * Drummond Group
    * InfoGard Laboratories Inc.
    * SLI Global Solutions
    * ICSA Labs
    * Surescripts LLC

And why should the healthcare provider choose ONC certified EMR tested product? It is beneficial for any provider under the Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive program to claim their incentives of adopting the healthcare technology. It would provide confidence to the physicians in the capabilities of the product that they plan to adopt.

ONC with its "ONC certified EMR" of meaningful use is tremendously supporting the nation's move towards secured and functional exchange of healthcare information, benefiting both the technology provider and the healthcare provider.

Benefits of Online Patient Scheduling

 

The traditional method of patient scheduling is a time consuming and hectic activity. A doctor / staff has to look for the available time slot for the patient, schedule it and inform the patient. The process may require a no. of corrections, rescheduling and so on. All this puts a lot of burden on the doctors and their staff, which ultimately affects productivity and patient service. More over, with the traditional system a patient is able to fix up an appointment with the doctor only during practice hours. 

 Compared to paper-based scheduling system, an effective online patient scheduling system is quicker and easier to manage. Doctors benefit from new technology on the market that allows their practices to be more cost-efficient and productive. Whereas, patients are benefited from online patient scheduling system as regards the flexibility in getting their appointments fixed up at any point of time irrespective of practice hours.

Certified EMR and Meaningful Use

Implementation of health IT products like EMR is not only helpful to the healthcare professionals but also to the patients as well as the entire healthcare industry. However, the implementation cost has been a big hurdle in the path of smooth implementation. Recent Federal legislation has charted a new path forward. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, a part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, authorized expenditures of at least $20 billion to promote the adoption and use of EMR solutions / EHR technologies that would ideally be connected through a national health information network.

The Medicare program enables you to qualify for $44,000 if you are meeting CMS criteria for Meaningful Use with your electronic medical records software. The Medicaid program incentives reach $63,750. The Medicaid program is easier to qualify for in the first year, but it is in the hands of the individual states to conduct this program. Also, as a provider, you will need to see at least 30% Medicaid patients to qualify for this program.

To qualify for these incentive dollars, providers must be using a Meaningful Use certified EMR product. Vendors are quickly pursuing Meaningful Use certification for 3rd parties.

Electronic Medical Records - Benefits and Concerns

 

In this digital age, every thing seems to be digitized - the library catalogs, the telephone diary and so on. Healthcare industry is not an exception to the rule, the industry is under rapid transformation with the introduction of health IT solutions like electronic medical records system, pactice management system, claims processing system and more.

Benefits:

1) Digitization of patient medical records helps to drastically reduce the work load.

2) The use of EMRs supposedly reduces errors in medical records.

3) Digital records provide more safety to the patient medical records as compared to manual (paper based) records.

4) Digital records (EMRs) brings about increase in ROI for the practice.

5) Electronic medical records ultimately help to bring about the improvement in quaity of patient service.

Concerns:

1) Cost of implementation, training and operations.

2) Patient data security issues.

3) EMRs can lead to loss of the human touch in health care.

Certain concerns as regards the implementation of electronic medical records can not be denied, however, looking into the unmatched advantages it can deliver for both doctors as well as practice, more and more doctors and hospitals are turning to electronic medical records.

EMR and Data Security

EMR software has become a must have in today's healthcare industry. The software promises to deliver unmatched avantages for both doctors as well as patients. The system ensures to streamline the overall back end process of clinics as well as hospitals. EMR can bring about drastic reduction in time spent and costs, there by bringing about improvement in overall revenue for the practice. As far as patients are concerned, the system if used in a right manner promises to bring about improvement in the quality of service.

In today's hi-tech world EMR system is a very important component for any practice or hospital, however, the importance of data security can not be denied. HIPAA is playing a wonderful role by regulating the software. A certified EMR would necessarily possess the technical features to control the access of patient data, however, a full-proof policy as regards data access is equally important.

EMR For Better Productivity & Revenue

 

Clinics and hospitals are struggling to handle an overload of patient cases, and this struggle can often result in errors and difficulties. This has created a huge demand for EMR software.

EMR (Electronic Medical Record) software ensures to streamline the overall patient record management process of clinics and hospitals. A fully functional EMR system can cut down on time spent on various patient management functions. The time saved can be utilized for attending to more no. of patients.

The EMR software not only brings about reduction in time and costs, however, it also helps to bring about improvement in the quality of patient service. All these factors result into increased productivity and ultimately more revenue for the practice.