Pratical Advice on Implementing EMR/EHR from Industry Leaders
"40 Percent of Americans don't have access to care for lack of insurance. Placing the blame on government, insurance companies or runaway litigation would not lead to a solution" Richard Holbrook, Diplomat.
Earlier this year Scott Patch, MD who is part of a multi specialty group called Intermed P.A. speaking at a regional extension center forum in Maine said that half of all medical record implementations fail.Why is that, he asked and continues that often a barrier to implementation hinges on what capacity or learning curve exists.
Andrew Finnegan, a healthinsurance specialist adds that something as basic as typing skills can be lacking. He recommended in such cases that providers be offered different ways to deal with this issue. Possibilities are training, scribes, voice recognition or quick text which many full-fledged EHR systems offer. Scott Patch, MD in his presentation offered the following suggestions from a provider point of view:
- When considering a move to EHR the whole pactice has to "Buy in". Cowan Stark, MD added: "It's a very different paradigm for providers. In the days of paper records, (a patient chart) was a private thing. Now it's public event." "How can we make knowledge effective, town by town, to every human alive? At the root of what makes it hard to do what we do, day-to-day, is complexity. We're in need of a science to understand how to deal with our knowledge" Atul Gawande, Surgeon
- The hardest part is maintaining good communication during the transition, Patch said. He recommends identifying a plan and choosing a "physician champion."
- EHR represents a fundamental shift in patient movement and record management. "Scanning is not the answer to everything" said Patch noting that "preloading is more important for productivity; if you favor preloading, it is much more efficient down the road."
- Stark added that having a "core amount of data on record" enabled his office to start seeing patients right away. Preloading included defining problem lists, medication lists and allergies. Six months prior to preloading, he said they began cleaning up paper charts so that information was legible.
Computer Systems Support & Design, LLC based in Fairfield County helps medical provider offices get the most out of their IT infrastructure and supports them in implementing and maintaining their systems. We are vendor-neutral.
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