EMR No Longer A Luxury

EMR No Longer A Luxury

EMR No Longer A Luxury

Up until recently a physician practice EMR (electronic medical record) might have still been considered a luxury but it is now mandated with a date for all patient data to be processed using EMR systems by 2015.

Less than half of private practice physicians currently have implemented an EMR in their practice. The Obama Administration has given a substantial push on increasing the use of EMR by providing funding in the way of economic stimulus funds.

To meet the guidelines for this funding source it must meet meaningful use standards. In the past some of the electronic medical record systems merely transferred the written documents to an electronic format, but much more is required to meet the expectations of meaningful use.

A true EMR goes beyond digitalization of patient records and embraces connecting with and providing meaningful and useful data to those involved in the care of a patient such as:

Hospitals

Pharmacies

Laboratories

Insurance companies

Medical device and equipment companies

The optimal EMR will also go beyond connecting and will open the doors of opportunity for work flow enhancement and the ever growing need for reporting to be based upon coded data.

Medicare Quality Performance reporting and payment, which includes 26 measures relating to diabetes, congestive heart failure, coronary artery disease and preventive services, has brought to the forefront of the EMR the need to have the required reporting data available in a coded format rather than being buried within a chart note.

CMS meaningful use criteria has been broken down into stages of implementation but it should be noted the first stage includes the following:

Collecting electronic health data in coded format

Implementing clinical decision support tools

Reporting clinical quality measures and public health data

Tracking conditions and coordination of care by use of EHR data

If you have an EMR system in place make sure your reporting capabilities and data collection fields meet the requirements. If you do not currently have an EMR the clock is ticking on the Mandatory EMR. Failure to have an EMR implemented by the target date will have financial implications upon your practice.

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