EMR, or Electronic Medical Records, are a great way for doctor's offices, pharmacies, labs, hospitals and more to coordinate their records. By combining all the patient information available healthcare becomes safer and easier for patients and medical staff.
The advantages of EMR are numerous. Physicians are alerted when drug interactions could occur, when follow up care is needed, when tests should be scheduled and so much more. Test results are available with a few clicks, reducing wasted time, mistakes and dangerous consequences. Though statistics are not available, it is believed that physicians with EMR in their practices will have much lower insurance costs due to the alert system included with the software program. Even insurance claims are easier, faster and denied far less often using EMR and the accounting systems and claims scrubbers available now.
Training how to use EMR isn't always easy. This is revolutionary new software. Everything about patients is included. Insurance claims, denials and accounting is all connected to the patient's medical records from all hospitals and clinics, including labs, x-rays and more. Clinical staff will all have to train in order to use this new tool, as every department is included and important to the patient's care. Not only will staff need to learn how to use the program, they will need to keep up to date on updates and added features as time goes on.
Some companies are maximizing doctor's return on investment by offering continued education. This option helps keep offices productive and utilizing the programs to their fullest ability. 2 to 3 hour classes can be attended in person or via the internet and cover a different topic every month. Group sessions keep users current on each new feature. Webinars are also available for immediate staff needs.
Healthtec Software and a few other companies offer these features and is also doing some on site education and consulting as well. Customized sessions are exclusive to each physician's practice because each software package is different and varied to fit practice's needs. Staff takes feedback on topics that need to be covered and customizes a curriculum to fit staff's needs. Most often this type of service is used when upgrades to the system are done; offices are switching from one program to another or when training or retraining is needed.
