April 17, 2008
Choosing an EMR Article on Medscape
A little while back I got an email asking me if I was interested in writing an article for Medscape about “Choosing an EMR.” I figured that might be a fun experience considering I’d written so much about the topic of choosing an EMR on this blog that it would be pretty easy to do.
Luckily, all went well and they accepted the article that I wrote and published it to their site. I think the article turned out pretty good and offers some decent insight for someone interested in selecting an EMR. I think the selection process is probably the EMR industries biggest barrier to adoption right now. The technology is certainly there now, but there are just too many choices right now that it is really hard for a doctor to know which EMR is best for them. Unfortunately, many just choose to not make a decision and just continue on with paper charts. Hopefully this article will help a few doctors offices get on the right track and implement an EMR successfully.
In the end, it was a really fun experience going through the process of writing an article that’s going to be published. It’s much more difficult than writing about EMR on this blog. It took hours of work for me to write that article. I wanted to make sure that I provided significant value to the readers of the article and that I didn’t leave anything important out. By comparison, this post that I’m writing now won’t take more than 10 minutes. Blogging is better that way, because I know that my insightful readers will correct me if I post something that’s way off kilter.
At the end of the day, it’s really fun to see my writing published and my name alongside a contribution to the medical community. I also got a big kick the other day when I was helping one of my PA’s with something and I saw he subscribed to Medscape. Made me feel good that I was being published in what he considered to be a credible medical source.
One final thought, I’d love to hear people’s feedback on my article “Choosing an EMR.” Leave all your thoughts, good and bad, in the comments.
Tags: EHR • EMRFebruary 2, 2008
Choosing an EMR or EHR
I think I’ve written enough speculative posts about Google Health. I decided to turn to something EMR or EHR related.
I’m interested to know how people have sifted through the vast array of EMR and EHR software offerings out there. I personally think we’ve almost reached the peak number of EMR software companies and that soon we’ll start seeing consolidation and less people trying to enter the EMR market. Regardless of that speculation, I’d love to hear the process people used to select their EMR software.
Even more important than the process you used, I’d find it very interesting to know what was the key factor people used to finally select their EMR. Also, what would you have done different if you had the chance to go through the process again?
I have a few of my own thoughts, but I thought I’d put it out their for readers before I clouded your ideas with mine.
Tags: EHR • EMR • EMR SelectionJanuary 19, 2008
Benefits of Using an EMR/EHR Consultant - Improved Clinical Buy-in
Part five of our five part series on the benefits of an EMR or EHR consultant is improved clinical buy-in.
Improved Clinical Buy-In
Hiring a proven EMR consultant alleviates fear and increases clinical buy in. However, more importantly, EMR consultants are able to provide a clinic the tools needed to show an EMR implementation’s ROI. EMR consultants should do a comprehensive analysis to show how an EMR implementation will reduce costs, increase revenues, and better care for patients. Quantifying the potential returns on an EMR investment generates significant buy in at all levels of a clinical organization.
See other parts of Benefits of using an EMR/EHR Consultant:
Benefits of Using an EMR/EHR Consultant - Selection Process
Benefits of Using an EMR/EHR Consultant - EMR Training
Benefits of Using an EMR/EHR Consultant - Clinical Process Mapping
Benefits of Using an EMR/EHR Consultant - Comprehensive Technology Support
Benefits of Using an EMR/EHR Consultant - Improved Clinical Buy-in
January 18, 2008
Benefits of Using an EMR/EHR Consultant - Comprehensive Technology Support
Part four of our five part series on the benefits of an EMR or EHR consultant is comprehensive technology support.
Comprehensive Technology Support
By providing a comprehensive set of technology support, a technical EMR consultant can alleviate doctor’s concern over the implementation of new technology. An EMR consultant’s proven track record of implementing these health care related technologies in doctors’ offices allows them to do it in a robust, efficient, and cost effective manner. Doctors save time searching through the numerous technology choices because EMR consultants can point them to the best brand of technology or even to technologies the doctor didn’t know existed.
See other parts of Benefits of using an EMR/EHR Consultant:
Benefits of Using an EMR/EHR Consultant - Selection Process
Benefits of Using an EMR/EHR Consultant - EMR Training
Benefits of Using an EMR/EHR Consultant - Clinical Process Mapping
Benefits of Using an EMR/EHR Consultant - Comprehensive Technology Support
Benefits of Using an EMR/EHR Consultant - Improved Clinical Buy-in
January 16, 2008
Benefits of Using an EMR/EHR Consultant - Clinical Process Mapping
Part three of our five part series on the benefits of an EMR or EHR consultant is clinical process mapping.
Clinical Process Mapping
One of the hardest things for a doctor new to EMR to do is see how their current clinical processes will work electronically in an EMR. To alleviate this fear, EMR consultants can first map out a doctor’s clinical processes. They can then use their experience with other EMR implementations and show how current clinical processes will be done using an EMR. This will save doctors a lot of time mapping out these processes. It also provides a clear understanding of what a doctor’s clinic will look like electronically. However, the most important part of this process is that it provides a way to find problems that may occur with an EMR before you’ve actually implemented.
See other parts of Benefits of using an EMR/EHR Consultant:
Benefits of Using an EMR/EHR Consultant - Selection Process
Benefits of Using an EMR/EHR Consultant - EMR Training
Benefits of Using an EMR/EHR Consultant - Clinical Process Mapping
Benefits of Using an EMR/EHR Consultant - Comprehensive Technology Support
Benefits of Using an EMR/EHR Consultant - Improved Clinical Buy-in
January 12, 2008
Benefits of Using an EMR/EHR Consultant - EMR Training
Part two of our five part series on the benefits of an EMR or EHR consultant is EMR Training.
EMR Training
Using an EMR consultant’s experience in successful EMR implementations, they have a strong ability to train doctors on EMR and other related technologies. Some of this training occurs in an initial meeting where they discuss challenges related to EMR selection and implementation. EMR consultants also provide ongoing training on how to best use their EMR in their clinic. Furthermore, EMR consultants can train clinical staff on using the various technologies associated with using an EMR.
See other parts of Benefits of using an EMR/EHR Consultant:
Benefits of Using an EMR/EHR Consultant - Selection Process
Benefits of Using an EMR/EHR Consultant - EMR Training
Benefits of Using an EMR/EHR Consultant - Clinical Process Mapping
Benefits of Using an EMR/EHR Consultant - Comprehensive Technology Support
Benefits of Using an EMR/EHR Consultant - Improved Clinical Buy-in
January 11, 2008
Benefits of Using an EMR/EHR Consultant - Selection Process
A while back I wrote something about why having an EMR or EHR consultant could be beneficial to a doctor looking to implement an EHR. Here’s the first part of a five part series on reasons why I think a well qualified, experienced EMR or EHR consultant is valuable. The first part is how an EMR or EHR consultant helps with the selection process.
EHR Selection Process
By first evaluating a doctor’s needs and preferences EHR consultants are able to eliminate a majority of the EHR companies and provide doctors with a short list of high quality EHR vendors to evaluate. By providing a smaller pool of EHR vendors, doctors are more comfortable with the selection process and don’t get discouraged seeing hundreds of EHR vendors that don’t meet their needs. EHR consultants also help doctors through the evaluation process. EHR consultants often provide a list of questions that can be used to evaluate EHR vendors. These questions have been designed to tease out information which will better enable doctors to select the right software. EHR consultants also assist doctors that need help negotiating with EHR vendors. These services include requesting enhancements to meet doctor specific needs or even ensuring that EHR vendor pricing is comparable to other EHR implementations.
When it comes down to it, a good EHR consultant can save a doctor large amounts of time and money that would have been wasted looking amongst the hundreds of EHR companies. It’s not hard to say that doctor’s most precious commodity is time.
See other parts of Benefits of using an EMR/EHR Consultant:
Benefits of Using an EMR/EHR Consultant - Selection Process
Benefits of Using an EMR/EHR Consultant - EMR Training
Benefits of Using an EMR/EHR Consultant - Clinical Process Mapping
Benefits of Using an EMR/EHR Consultant - Comprehensive Technology Support
Benefits of Using an EMR/EHR Consultant - Improved Clinical Buy-in
January 1, 2008
Description of a Fax Server in a Doctor’s Office
Today I got an email from a doctor asking the following question “How do I implement a fax server in my office? I have a server and 7 workstations. I have a fax line and a fax machine.” After typing a long reply I decided that information about setting up a fax server in a Doctor’s Office might be useful to all EMR and HIPAA readers. The following is my email reply:
I think you might be misunderstanding a fax server a little. A fax server is a special type of fax machine that usually is hooked up to your server. Most regular fax machines can’t be used as a fax server. You can read more about fax servers on wikipedia.
There are a number of different ways to set it up, but most people connect the fax line to the fax server, and the fax server to the server. Then, ideally you use active directory to share the fax server with in your case the 7 workstations in your office. You can also do this manually if you don’t use active directory in your office.
In order to get the faxes off of the fax server, I personally set up a folder on the server where all the faxes arrive. I then shared the folder on the server with all the workstations I want to access the received faxes. Here again I did this with active directory, but you can also do it manually too.
It’s also important to select the fax software you want to use with your Fax Server. Windows 2003 Server comes with good enough software for most people or you can find a ton of different fax softwares out there that are in the $50-100 range. I personally just use the Windows 2003 fax server software. It keeps a log of all incoming faxes and even all of the faxes sent. With Windows 2003 Small Business Server, it’s really easy to setup the fax server software. I imagine it’s not that difficult with any Windows 2003 server, but it might take a little looking to find where to configure it.
I also have seen that not all fax servers are the same. I wish that I was more of an expert, but I’ve just taken the hit or miss approach. One that I purchased was a little troublesome and the other one has worked really smoothly. I found a list of compatible fax devices on the Microsoft website at one point, but for some reason I didn’t follow it. It might have been because of price or it was outdated. I don’t remember exactly why.
I also recommend keeping your regular fax machine around. Ideally you’d have it set up on a separate phone line so that you have a back up fax machine if your fax server fails, has problems or something else crazy. Always nice to have a little redundancy for the inevitable problems with technology.
Best of luck getting it set up. It really is a HUGE benefit to a doctor’s office. Once it’s set up, then all you’ll ever need to really do is learn to clear out faxes that failed to be sent (ie. fax number is incorrect) and to restart the fax server occasionally.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Tags: EHR • EMR • fax serverNovember 14, 2007
Attending the PCCHA Conference
I’m currently attending the PCCHA conference which is basically the college health association conference for the west coast. The conference has been quite interesting. A few of the sessions ended up being quite useful, but more than anything it was just fun for me to talk to all of the various people working in the college health community. Most of my conversations centered around EHR and EMR implementation, but it was also fun to see these other college health professionals jealous of the really state of the art facilities we have on our campus.
My presentation on EMR went quite well and I think that many of the people in the audience got some useful information. At least that’s my hope. It was fun to present on EMR and the things we’ve learned. The interesting thing for me was that as I talked to people about EMR and EHR and using it in college health, I realized that over the past two years I’ve really learned a lot about what it takes to implement an EHR into a clinic. It can certainly be a daunting task if you look at all the intricacies.
In the end, my message to most of the people that I talked to was that while implementing an EHR can be overwhelming, it’s important to take small bite size pieces of it and accomplish those. Then, move on to the next problem and the next. The reality is that 2.5 years after implementing our EMR system, we’re still adding, modifying and changing our processes to be more effective.
Tags: College Health • EHR • EHR Implementation • EMR • EMR Implementation • PCCHANovember 7, 2007
Free EMR by Medicare?
I’ve been working with John Deutsch of EMR Experts, Inc. and I invited him to be a guest blogger on my blog. Here’s an article John sent me about the Free Vista EMR offered by the government. While I think the news about Vista being free came out about 2.5 years ago, the information about adopting it is still VERY relevant. Probably because the EMR adoption level is so low.
Enjoy John’s take on the government’s “Free EMR.”
Is anything ever free these days? Maybe so.
Instigated by the incredibly slow adoption of Electronic Medical Records (EMR) by doctors across the nation, Medicare is announcing it will begin offering doctors free electronic medical record software solutions.
Both upfront and ongoing costs have been critical factors in the lagging EMR adoption rate. Medicare hopes that by providing doctors with a free or very low-cost system, doctors will readily adopt EMR putting healthcare providers in America on a common system, thereby, providing Medicare and the general public with obvious, health, reporting and billing benefits.
The proposed system is VistA, (Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture) the widely popular system built by the Veterans Administration.
The adoption of VistA has resulted in the VA achieving a pharmacy prescription accuracy rate of 99.997%. Due to the implementation of VistA, the VA also outperforms most public sector hospitals on a variety of criteria.
The VistA system is public domain software, available through the Freedom of Information Act directly from the VA website or through a network of distributors.
Installed in over 1300 inpatient and outpatient facilities, the system is well-established and quite successful by EMR standards.
But can a system designed for a large organization like the VA also work for a solo practitioner family practice office?
A doctor in a New York Time article writes:
“It is one thing to use a system that someone else installed and someone else maintains. It is another to get a set of disks in the mail and do it yourself.”
Those who have tried to install VistA on their own would agree.
“Giving out a version of VistA is a great idea,” said Dr. David Kibbe, director of the Center for Health Information Technology at the American Academy of Family Physicians, a group that has been working on the project. “But at the beginning, there was a lot of wishful thinking. They said, ‘We’ll just release it.’ I said, ‘Where’s the fairy dust?’ ”
The problems with the healthcare sector and its slow adoption of electronic medical records are much deeper than some would like to admit, and viable solutions have been hard to come by.
The healthcare system is extremely fragmented, with thousands upon thousands of practices all practicing differently, using different billing systems, with different levels of computer proficiency, and different workflows.
Building a one-size-fits-all system has failed in the past and will likely continue to fail. The fact that over 300 different vendors currently develop and market EMR software attests to the need for customization.
The need for pre- and post-sale customization is a reality in every practice since every practice operates differently. Even practicing physicians within the exact same specialty do things differently and run their practices differently.
A key challenge for systems with large installation bases is often that the system becomes rigid simply due to the vendor trying to please too many different practices. Customization gets repeatedly delayed or shelved altogether.
Another concern is that when medical records are stored on servers that Medicare can access and control as they please practices may be hesitant to use the system regardless of the benefits to the practices and their patients.
While Medicare’s plan is to offer the software for free, one must ask what free is. Currently, free is software but not training, installation, and ongoing support.
Even if Medicare did make it 100% free, a free EMR is not free if it fails. The costs involved with a failed implementation can far outweigh the costs of purchasing an EMR at market price due to productivity losses, and hardware and implementation costs.
Maybe Medicare could focus more of their resources in the development and promotion of better standards for integrating already proven EMR systems and integrating EMR systems with electronic personal health records, managed by the patient
Why not offer patients a free electronic health record which can easily interface to all the major EMR vendors in the market? Wouldn’t a record they control, that can communicate with all their health providers, and be accessed by any other provider in the event of an emergency be more beneficial?
After all, isn’t the patient’s best interest the goal of healthcare in the 21st century?
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For more information about EMR Experts, Inc. and their Medical Software solutions, please visit www.emrexperts.com
Tags: EHR • EMR and EHR • EMR Customization • EMR Experts • John Deutsch • Medicare • Vista