Be honest. Has it crossed your mind to sell your practice to a hospital or retire rather than deal with the pain of implementing and using a new electronic medical record (EMR) system? Two of the biggest reasons physicians are hesitant about implementing electronic medical records are 1) the cost of implementing a system and 2) the learning curve and what it will do to daily operations of the office. Both concerns are valid. However, there are funding sources available, if you are willing to look for them yourself or to contract a management consultant to assist you in the search. Also, the learning curve for the new system and its impact on daily operations can be minimized if you ask the correct questions upfront to determine and drive the outcome. Unfortunately most practices won’t ask for external assistance because they don’t want to spend more money, nor do they want to invest the time in asking the necessary proactive questions.
It’s a no brainer that you want to improve quality of patient care, but take a few minutes to consider the following additional reasons for implementing an EMR.
- Automation reduces accounts receivables because it allows shorter turnaround time from patient seen to billing to receipt of payment.
- Automation helps you reduce waste caused by ordering duplicate labs when your office didn’t get the results of a previous order or the lab claims it didn’t receive the order in the first place.
- Automation supports a better defense during the inevitable lawsuit because your notes will be legible, complete and all in one place.
- Numerous studies have proved automation reduces medication errors.
- Once beyond the learning curve, automation will decrease the number of hours expended in charting.
- Automation makes it easier to comply with records requests, promoting more efficient use of your clerical staff.
- Well care notifications can be automated, leading to higher compliance by your patients.
- Publicly available profiles will document that you are a modern practitioner and are equally or more competent compared to the younger doctor down the street.
- Charts won’t be left in the trunk of your car or be impossible to find when you need them.
10. Records requests can be fulfilled easily within the time required by law.
11. You can participate in the local health information exchange to benefit from communication between all care providers.
Before you determine that your practice is too old or too broke to take on the challenge of business process improvement, consider asking what the implications are for not complying with the HI TECH Act. Such as:
- How will I rank among my peers on the profiling information available to my patients?
- What other means do I have to recover from Medicare reimbursement cuts if I don’t implement an EMR?
- How much can my liability insurance rates increase due to the higher risk of paper records before I bend under financial pressure?
- What am I really afraid of?
- Can I afford NOT to implement an EMR and remain in practice?
Sometimes we resist new situations either because we don’t like being told what to do by the government or because the fear of the unknown is more powerful than the current chaos. However, you shouldn’t limit yourself or your practice without considering the full ramifications of your decision. And last but not least, don’t let your patient be compromised or be forced to find a more modern physician–they originally chose you over other physicians for a reason. Your patients need you, and they need you to provide the best care possible.
