Physician Practices and Electronic Health Records Software

The goal of electronic health records (“EHR”) is to cut medical costs, increase efficiency and improve the quality of care provided to each patient. However, transitioning from paper to electronic records can be daunting and expensive, particularly worse for small practices who have little expertise in software and computer networks.  The high cost of an EHR system, the often challenging process of implementing new technology into a physician practice, and the difficulty in deciding which system best meets a practice’s needs have deterred many physicians from embracing EHRs. However, many practices and facilities have moved towards EHRs in the last few years with incentives from Medicare to encourage that push and there are now many companies offering a multitude of EHR programs.

When consulting with EHR vendors and/or consultants, the following must be considered before purchasing: overall design of the EHR, which includes the ability to handle multiple business entities; whether the system has enough security levels to satisfy the needs of the practice; if you are happy with your current practice management system can it be integrated with an EHR system; the ability of the EHR system to integrate well with portable devices (laptop, tablet PC, PDA) and provide security measures to guard the data on portable devices; ease of use of the EHR system, i.e., easy to read, data entry; whether the EHR system being considered supports PQ00RI (Physician Quality Reporting Initiative) and make it easy to fulfill their reporting requirements; whether the system has an ePrescription module so you can receive bonus payments for its use; the adequacy of the scheduling system to meet not only the current needs of the practice but if the practice expands to more providers and/or offices; and finally the report writing ease and flexibility, which includes reporting capabilities.

Also, if the practice works with managed care contracts then it is important to pay particular attention to the managed care features of the system. On a final note, it is extremely important that the EHR vendor supplies adequate training and support to new installations and new users because without that it will be impossible to achieve the system’s full benefits.