subject: Is Your Office Ready To Meet The Challenges Of Emr? [print this page] With the 2014 deadline for making the switch over to using electronic medical records for all of the patients in your office looming ever closer, the time is right for you to start seriously looking at your office and your staff with an eye to getting ready to make the switch. By now you have probably been inundated with information both from the government telling you that you have to make the switch and a host of companies all offering you help to do so. Some are offering you standalone software, while others are talking to you about using their online EMR services.
Rather than suffering from a lack of information, chances are good that you are dealing with such a deluge of information that you do not know who to believe, let alone which you should choose to go with in the process of setting your office up to comply with the new EMR laws. When you are required to accomplish such a major undertaking and have only a limited amount of time to do so, the last thing you need is to be inundated with so much information that leaves you so confused that the entire process comes to a standstill.
In order to help clear the air a little, we are going to break the process of converting over to electronic medical records into the two separate categories, offline vs. online, and explain the benefits if any of both as they are similar in certain aspects yet completely different in others. It is the differences that you need to be more concerned with as the only real similarities are the fact that both require a computer and store all of your patients' records digitally. Beyond this, the two forms of EMR diverge significantly.
Let's start by looking at the standalone EHR software that you have by now received a number of offers from various companies who want to sell you their "latest edition". In their favor you are looking at a one-time fee for the software you will be buying, this means that in theory there is nothing else for you to buy and once you install your new software on your computers, you should be up and ready to go. Sadly, it rarely works out quite this way as very few people have the experience to install this type of software without experiencing problems.
At the same time you get little to no customer support and very few of these companies offer much beyond the most basic training. If you need updates or modifications chances are very good that if they are even available, you are going to have to pay for them. If this sounds more like a good reason to resist the conversion, you may find that using an online EMR service offers you a much better solution to preparing your office to comply with the latest laws and regulations concerning the implementation of electronic medical records.
You will find that when you subscribe to an online service, you will not have to worry about installing any software on your computer system, it is all maintained online. You will log in and have instant access not only to the software you need, but all of your patients' records as they can be stored in the clouds within the database of the site you are subscribed to. Then there is the software itself, not only is it all maintained online, but you will never have to pay for an update or have to deal with out of date software as the provider will include all updates in the price of your monthly fee.
While paying a monthly fee will eventually add up to more than the cost of the standalone software, you will find the peace of mind that comes with this kind support can be invaluable. As if this is not enough, we provide you and your staff with a complete training package so that everyone will know how to use and feel comfortable using our software all included in the price of the service package you sign up for. The intent is to make it as easy as possible for you and your office to make the switch to electronic medical records.
If you are ready to switch you offices over to electronic medical records or would like information on free electronic medical records, contact us at Meditab http://www.meditab.com and let us show you how easy it can be to convert over and use the latest in EMR technology for your office. We can save your office both time and money as well as make it easier for you to concentrate on taking care of your patients.
