When I wrote my previous post about EMR consultant challenges, I thought it might be valuable to create a list of possible ways to do EMR consulting. This list is just off the top of my head, so please feel free to add other EMR consulting opportunities that exist out there in the comments:

EMR Selection – Consult on selecting the right EMR.
EMR Implementation – Consult on the best way to implement the EMR. Map EMR workflows to their existing paper workflows.
Meaningful Use – Consult a practice on how they can achieve meaningful use and get the EMR stimulus money.
EMR Vendors – Consult EMR vendors on their software, their marketing, etc.
IT Consulting – Consult practices on the right IT infrastructure to support an EMR in their practice.
EMR Review – Review an already implemented EMR and suggest ways that the implementation could be improved.
EMR Training – Train end users on a particular EMR. This often is similar to or included in EMR implementation consulting.
EMR Certification – Consult EMR vendors on preparing for and getting EHR certified (some are even still looking for help with CCHIT Certification).

Ok, what other types of EMR consulting are out there?

Everyone has been touting all the tremendous opportunities that are out there for EMR consultants and healthcare IT people. No doubt, there’s a lot of action right now around EMR. However, I’ve started to see many EMR consultants starting to wonder where the fountain of youthwork is that they heard was coming for EMR consultants.

EMR consultants face a really interesting challenge. The small clinics usually can’t afford the services of a consultant (or feel that they can’t) and the large clinics have their own in house resources and so their reticent to pay an outside EMR consultant to come into their practice. Where does that leave the EMR consultants that heard there’s this amazing need for help with EMR selection and implementation?

Not an easy problem to solve. Plus, there’s an even larger group of providers that still haven’t made the decision and committed the resources needed to implement an EMR. This means that the EMR consultant ends up having to not only sale their EMR consulting services, but also have to sale doctors on EMR.

This doesn’t mean that there aren’t a number of opportunities for people wanting to consult on EMR selection and implementation. It just means that EMR consultants are going to have to be really creative in how they find new customers.

From my experience, it’s going to be all about the relationships and trust that these consultants create with the doctors. As in most business, but particularly in healthcare relationships matter a lot.

Anybody have advice they can give these EMR consultants? It always amazes me how every job is basically a sales job. It’s just what you’re trying to “sale” that changes.

Note: Let’s also not confuse true EMR consultants with EMR salespeople dressed in consultant clothing.

I mentioned previously that I was working on an article about EHR consultants. I wanted to sincerely thank all those people who commented on EHR consultants and sent me feedback on things I should include in my article.

As you’ll see, I used a lot of the feedback that you gave me to form the article. That’s really the power of the internet to bring a bunch of bright people together to create something of far greater value than I could have created on my own. Thank you for your feedback.

I’m told the Magazine has been sent to the presses and those of you who get MDNG magazine will see my article soon (hopefully someone will get one to me). The cool thing is that my article is the cover story for the February issue of MDNG.

For those that don’t want to wait for the magazine or don’t get the magazine, my article on EHR consultants has already been posted online. It’s called: Does Your EHR Consultant Have Your Best Interests in Mind?

Let me know what you think about it.

Some people have asked me how I rate the EMR I work with every day. I can’t bring myself to do it. It’s unfair to me and the people I work with. It’s not that I don’t have strong feelings about my EMR. I really do. I know the pros and cons, the ins the outs, and everything in between. However, it’s just hard rating my EMR and hopefully I can help you understand why.

My job is to implement this EMR the best way possible. That’s what I do. It doesn’t matter if it’s good bad or ugly. It’s counter productive for me to rate how good my EMR is. It is what it is. I haven’t been assigned the task of selecting an EMR. I’m not paid right now to see what other EMR vendors might be better than the one I have. I’m paid to do my very best at implementing the EMR that was chosen.

I don’t want to sound harsh here, but I think that many of the EMR failures are due to people worrying too much about what other EMR software can do and not enough about what their EMR software can do. The question shouldn’t ever be, can our EMR software do this? Instead you should ask, “how can we do this with the EMR software we’ve chosen?” This is two very different perspectives that reap very different results.

I’m not talking about someone who is in the process of selecting an EMR. I’m talking about someone who has already selected an EMR. It reminds me about one of my favorite quotes about marriage that says, “When you’re dating keep both eyes wide open, when you get married keep them closed.” You could just as easily say, “When selecting an EMR keep both eyes wide open, but once you’ve chosen an EMR keep both eyes closed and make the most of it.”

Of course, one thing I can’t help doing is answering people’s questions about EMR. I’ve had dozens of people call me about my EMR and I just love talking to them about the benefits, challenges and hassles of my EMR.