Five Tips and Strategies to Implement EMR and EHR Successfully in Your Medical Practice
The electronic health record (EHR) system is integral to the modern medicine revolution. Similarly, EMRs (Electronic Medical Records) can help you stay on top of patient care and streamline your daily tasks. One study found that primary care clinics recovered their EHR investments within ten months after implementing them. Most likely, this is why providers took advantage of electronic processes.
So, if your facility is converting to these EMR/EHR systems, how can you ensure the implementation process? In this blog post, we’ll provide five tips and strategies to implement EMR and EHR successfully in your medical practice.
- Assemble an Implementation Team
It will be essential to identify the people who will lead the implementation process. Moreover, your team should have three key players:
- Lead physician: The lead physician guides the use of the system and collaborates with technical and administrative staff. Thus, consider using a tech-savvy lead physician who can embrace new processes.
- Project manager: The project manager keeps stakeholders on schedule, tracks the progress of projects, and manages day-to-day activities in conjunction with the vendor and all other staff in practice.
- Lead super user: The lead super user will function as the EHR expert. In addition, he must be able to design templates and smart workflows while also responding to problems rapidly.
- Set Up the Software, Hardware, and Network
As you implement your EHR, ensure security measures meet HIPPA requirements. Ensure the software you use is compliant by working with your IT vendor. In contrast, your EMR/EHR must also be compatible with your facility’s IT and computer hardware to handle increased workloads. This will ensure the system is as up-to-date and efficient as possible.
- Transferring of Data
Next, you need to transfer data once the hardware, network, and software are in place. It is also vital to migrating your old EHR records to the new EHR.
There are three ways to do this step:
- First, assign existing or new staff to upload information into the new EHR. Hiring a temporary or additional staff member might also be helpful to upload demographics and past medical, social, family, and medication histories.
- Second, prepare a checklist of things to enter into the EHR. In this way, no critical information will be missing.
- Calculate the average patient’s timeframe for transferring information. As a result, the staff can set realistic completion dates and assign workloads appropriately.
So, better to follow these steps to ensure a smooth EMR/EHR implementation.
- Get Rid of Adoption Barriers
It is often the psychological barriers that hold clinicians back from switching to computers. Encouraging dialogue and interaction inspire staff to form new ideas for adapting to the new system. Next, it is necessary to determine if the hardware is sufficient to support software and traffic needs.
- Set a Budget for EHR Implementation and Forecast Your Costs
Your team and your to-do list are in place; now you can ask—How much will it cost to implement an EHR?
Even so, having a well-defined budget that includes the following factors should prevent any unexpected costs from emerging:
- The upgrading of hardware and networks
- Implementing overtime for staff and temporary employees
- Reducing productivity (some estimates as high as a 50% drop in patient throughput)
- Customizing the consultation with the EHR vendor
- Training fees for vendors
- Consultation fees
- Backing up and storing data (often included with cloud EHR costs)
Most practices can expect to spend around $6,200 per user on their software, so keep this in mind and the other factors mentioned.
Now let’s know EMR and EHR implementation in more detail.
What is EMR/EHR Implementation?
Many healthcare organizations use an electronic health record implementation plan to prepare for and implement an EHR system. However, if a health care personnel only has experience with paper or an older EMR/EHR, adapting to a new EMR/EHR can be challenging. Security and privacy, along with thorough training, are crucial for early implementation and easy adaptation. Moreover, a thoughtful EMR/EHR implementation can benefit all patients, staff, and physicians.
How long does EMR/EHR implementation take?
It depends on the vendor you speak with and the situation. Due to the many variables that can affect the time needed for an EHR implementation, the typical time required varies by setting and product. The EMR/EHR implementation does not follow a standard timeframe. However, when implementing a new EHR, there is no uncertainty about timing. You can get solid estimates from the experts involved in the process.
What are some of the Electronic Health Records (EHRs) Best Practices?
Here are some of the Electronic Health Records best practices for hospitals and medical groups:
- Make your EHR compatible with staff workflows.
The key is to determine which aspects work best for an individual and apply them to everyone. It’s crucial to gather the opinions, recommendations, and cooperation from the staff to make the EHR a success.
- Train employees only on the features they will use.
All employees in your practice do not need to know the features of the EHR. Moreover, the “superusers” are the only ones who need to know them all. It’s more efficient to train each person or group on the specific features necessary for them to use.
- Identify potential failure modes of the EHR to prevent future issues.
Stakeholders should help you identify the failure points of the EHR and determine what it will take for it to succeed. “Don’t forget that you will be storing a large amount of data. Prepare enough storage and fast computers to access information quickly.
- Implement EHRs with the help of experts
Hire a specialist with experience in implementing EHR systems. A skilled EHR user can make the difference in success or failure since he is knowledgeable in that field.
What are some of the Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) Best Practices?
Below are a few of the Electronic Medical Records best practices for hospitals and medical groups:
- Automate Processes
It’s complex to maintain compliance with state and federal laws, and human error is a rare option. The automation of time-consuming processes makes centralized medical records management safer and more accurate.
- Enhance data security
Patient records must remain secure. Also, electronic records must have audit trails, while paper records should be stored in a safe room. Stored files at offsite locations should be in climate-controlled premises. After their life cycle, e-records and paper should be destroyed securely using NAID-certified methods.
- Provide a broad employee training
Cyber breaches arise mostly from sophisticated hacks, but others result from untrained employees mismanaging sensitive health records. Under HIPAA guidelines, companies must train all employees who handle health records at any point in the data lifecycle.
Providing you with the Best
1st Providers Choice is a leading provider of the best EMR and EHR software solutions for medical facilities. We offer various EHR features. Choose only the best for your healthcare practice!
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You can call us at (480) 782-1116 for immediate assistance, or you can schedule a free demo with our experts TODAY.