Electronic Medical Record System Installation Tips

Electronic Medical Record System Installation Tips

The Federal Stimulus Program, or American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, has made it incredibly easy and inexpensive to get started with an electronic medical record system. Put simply, the stimulus package offers an incentive plan for doctors to adopt EMR software which would pay them anywhere from $44,000-64,000 provided they show "meaningful use" of the product. The effort is aimed at streamlining the overall Healthcare system, and essentially pays for your EMR system over a period of a a couple of years.

The stimulus plan is good not only for medical, but for the Healthcare industry itself, which has required medical record standards for a long time. But what many doctors don't understand is that adopting an EMR system is different than adopting most software products. Basically, in order to get the quickest return on investment with EMR, doctors need to ensure the adoption plan is detailed, precise and complete.

Fact: 9 of 10 EMR software vendors would love to sell you an EMR system and then make a run for it. And frankly, many developers actually WILL do this. But the provider of a real product with quality training and support knows that creating a plan for adoption is key to not only your use of an electronic medical records program, but to potential future sales.

An EMR software adoption plan should include these points:

Workflow Design - This isn't simply a document management program - it's a different way of doing things. An EMR system requires that the work methods of your staff change in order to gain advantages from the efficiencies available in the program. This means office personnel may be preparing medical records before appointments. It means that each move your clinic makes with paper medical records will disappear. This is always a key "surprise" for practices, and must be dealt with first.

Solid Training - You could have the best developed EMR system in the world, with the easiest interface ever - and without training, it would be a bust. Training ensures the entire staff, including and especially the practitioners, have a great level of knowledge and experience with the system before it is fully adopted at the practice. Good training means that the software will gain traction more effectively and faster, with the best possible feelings toward the system. Low quality training means high-stress, learn-as-you-go development that typically leads to frustration and problems. Aside from quality, there is training location to consider. Will it be remote, or in the practice? There are differing costs and benefits to each.

Mentorship - Finding an "EMR Mentor" helps during the adoption and training process. This Mentor should be counted upon to have the greatest knowledge of the product, and be able to assist staff members that are having difficulties, or who are unused to using computers in the workplace. Discovering this staff member can be a chore, but can also save the practice thousands of dollars in support and training expenses by alleviating the need to call the vendor whenever a bump in the road comes along.

Realizing that EMR software is a complex product with many benefits is important for any practice looking to adopt a new system. Planning is key, and with it, your electronic medical record system is more than just an application - it is an efficiency-generating machine.

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