What general surgeons need from their health it software

Every physician has a specific specialty which has its own unique set of challenges. As a result, it requires different software capabilities. So what is the most ideal health IT software for general surgeons? Let’s take a look.

State of General Surgery

General surgeons primarily focus on diagnosing, managing and performing operations for conditions located in the gastrointestinal tract, abdomen, endocrine system, breasts, blood vessels, skin and soft tissue.

On average, 42% of general surgeons suffer from physician burnout – the 7th highest percentage among physician specialties. The primary reasons cited include excessive bureaucratic tasks, lengthy work hours and the oncoming impacts of the Affordable Care Act.

What functionality general surgeons require?

General surgeons provide a wide range of care and hence, require a unique set of needs when it comes to the software they use to treat their patients.

Because general surgeons tend to split their time between different locations, portability of patient info is extremely important. Cloud-based EHRs come in handy in this regard as they can be accessed via any computer with an Internet connection.

The ability to read and send lab results is also critical to general surgeons. Their EHR needs to be able to easily access results for pre-surgery blood tests, Partial Thromboplastic Time and complete blood counts (CBCs).

The breadth of specialty means a large volume of new codes to learn under ICD-10, so general surgeons require a PM system equipped to handle the arrival of an estimated 60,000 new medical codes. In fact, general surgeons should consider outsourcing medical billing to an external agency to alleviate the burden of ICD-10.

A quality EHR can organize patient encounters into one, easy to access location, leading to better patient results for specialists. If you’re a family physician in the market for a new EHR, download this whitepaper today for answers to your most challenging questions.

Things to look for when evaluating an EMR Software

Practices need to evaluate the different kinds of EHR/EMR Software available in the market before making up their mind about a certain EMR System. Some of the tips needed in evaluating the EMR Software are mentioned below:

• Know the company

You need to read and find out what others are saying about the company? Forums, message boards as well as review websites usually talk about the EMR companies both positively and negatively. Read the customer feedback as it helps you know the issues and qualities related with the certain EMR. Google keywords such as EMR, EHR companies appearing in the top results are usually the ones that are popular among the clients and get a lot of traffic.

• Focus of the Company

Find out if a particular company focus on only one specific specialty (i.e. Rheumatology, Chiropractic, Neurology etc ) or they try to cater everyone? Opt for those EMR companies that focus on a particular specialty or offer specialty specific EMR. Rather than those companies that offer EMR for all the services and specialties.

• Beta Mode

When a company is in the Beta testing mode it refers to customers using the product and giving feedback to the company. If company is in Beta Mode ask how long they have been in Beta Mode. A long Beta period such as3 -5 months indicates a product that is not well received by the customers and is there are many bugs and issues associated with the product.

• Growth Charts

Find out the growth the company had in recent years. Being in the business for a long time does not necessarily mean the product is good. Which company you would rather choose: a company that is in the business for 20 years with 8000 users or a company that is doing business for 3 years with 5000 users. The latter system has received much better growth than and is well-known. Whereas the former company has a slow growth line or their users are declining. Neither of this is good for the users of that system.

• Retention Ratio

Retention ratio refers to how many users are still using the system compared to the ones that leave. No single system works well for everyone so after a certain time each system will have a decline in its users. Tricky part is to find the retention ratio. It is usually determined based on the term of the contract. Let’s say in a company with one year contract 900 users renew this year and 135 users quits this will equals to a retention rate of 85%. Anything above 90% is good and above 95% means company has a strong future.

• Company size

The size of the company’s team will help give clue about the ability of the company to grow. Look for those companies that have well defined separate sales and support teams. As this will not only keeps the users satisfied with the service but indicates that the company has the ability to pay several people rather than one or two. How to tell if the sales and support are different in a company? Call the support number and check if the same person answers the call. Look for the companies that grow their teams.

• Solvency

Look for a company that is solvent as it will spend more on the marketing as they want to grow. This will quality marketing material such as good website, recent blog posts, regular press releases as well as advertisements in the Industry. If a certain company has a website and it looks outdated, it signals a trouble for the company as it would cost a lot of money to have a dynamic and running website. The overall branding of the EMR Company will provide clue to the solvency power of the company

Keep an eye on these indicators and take out those companies from the lists that do not meet the criteria. As it will get much easier to manage a decision that makes you comfortable

Best EMR by practice size

Latest research figures suggest there are as many as 2,000 EMR companies in the US. A large part of these companies are catering to solo providers while others are offering solutions for small, medium and large practices. Quite a small part of these providers are also catering to hospitals. On average, a small practice usually contains 2 to 5 providers while a medium sized practice will have up to 25 providers. For hospitals, the provider number usually goes up to 100.

So in case you are a provider looking to make the big shift to healthcare IT or just want to break away from your current EMR system, you will want to move to the best option you have based on your practice size. However, it is easy for practices to lose track of what they actually want when they enter the EMR market looking for their new system. EMR vendors these days sugarcoat their products in a way that they appear very appealing to the potential buyers. However, providers often regret their decisions when the system is put to practice in real life. They struggle to keep their workflows smooth and are left with spending more time in front of a computer rather than on a patient.

So let’s give you some of the best EMR vendors available out there in the market which guarantee you choose the right product for your practice and do not regret your investment later on.

Best EMR for solo providers

1.       CureMD 

One of the most experienced vendors out there in the market, CureMD has been catering to solo providers for over 17 years. It is the pioneer of cloud-based EMR and offers a complete solution for providers including practice management and billing services as well. As of now, it is serving over 100,000 users across 52 states representing a mix of over 30 specialties.

In addition to the core services, CureMD now also offers an iPad EMR offering a multitude of features such as enterprise scheduling, patient profile, clinical review, insurances, etc. Furthermore, it offers a complete patient portal and the ability to electronically prescribe medications whenever a physician requires.

As per Research, CureMD has a 52% user satisfaction ranking, by far one of the best averages in the industry. Compared to some other big names in the market, it really excels in customer support as users have the ability to put in complaint tickets and are responded to by the client services executives in no time. Other than that, users of CureMD EMR are really happy with the way company is moving forward in terms of its design, usability, functionality and reliability.

2.       e-MDs

e-MDs is another vendor which is counted amongst one of the experienced health IT vendors in the market. Catering to solo and small practices, e-MDs offers EMR and billing solutions as part of its package. While it does not offer a standalone practice management software, it does have the ability to incorporate enterprise scheduling, document management and mobile charting facilities.

e-MDs is catering to over 20 specialties and enables providers to attest for Meaningful Use Stage 2 as well. Like CureMD, e-MDs is also cloud-based and offers an iPad based solution for its users.

Based on Research, it also has a very high (52%) customer satisfaction ranking and one of most important benefits as per users is the ability to finish their work on time. However, among some of the issues users are talking about e-MDs are low system reliability, charging for every system upgrade, lab integration issues and their inability to innovate.

3.       Amazing charts

Amazing Charts is another vendor which is catering to solo, small and medium practices across the United States. Frequently ranked amongst the top 20 EMR vendors by Black Book Rankings survey 2013 and Medscape, Amazing Charts offers EMR and Practice Management solution along with billing services. In addition to the basic services, Amazing Charts supports scheduling, messaging, e-prescribing and reporting tools.

Although not ready for ICD-10 yet, Amazing Charts does offer patient portal and lab integration with medical devices.

However, it is important to give an unbiased insight into our favorite EMRs. As per Research, Amazing Charts has a 50% overall user satisfaction ranking but some users complain of issues in the customer support.

Best EMR for 2-5 providers

1.       CureMD

In the category of 2-5 providers, CureMD once again ranks as our favorite. It is virtually the best system you can get for your practice. One of the best features for you as a provider is it is ready to meet ICD-10 and Meaningful Use Stage 2 challenges and can really help you transform your workflows with ease.

With a five star usability ranking and HIPAA compliance, CureMD offers fast track implementation and KPI dashboards. In addition to this, CureMD billing reduces cost to collect payments per procedure and major reductions in Accounts Receivable days.

However, the best reason to choose CureMD is its proven track record of innovation and corporate stability. It offers free updates and guarantees 99% uptime. In addition, it offers fast track implementation, training, support and data backup/migration services to its customers.

2.       Athena Health

Athena Health is another EMR vendor which is hugely famous in the industry with its state-of-the-art cloud-based EMR and Practice Management solutions. Although a bit on the expensive side, it is an ideal solution for small and medium practices. According to Capterra, Athena Health ranks number 5 in terms of popularity. While Athena Health offers EMR and PM solutions, it does not offer billing services to its clients.

Amongst some of the top features as listed by the users on Research are robust interface, complete integration the personal support and feedback they get from the staff at Athena Health.

On the flipside, some users complain of interoperability and interfacing issues with Athena Health clinicals.

 3.       Aprima Medical Software

Aprima is another Health IT vendor that is ideally suited for small and medium practices, offering Electronic Medical Records, Practice Management and Revenue Cycle Management solutions. Like other products in the category, Aprima is also ideally suited if you have a practice comprising of 2-5 providers.

Ready for Meaningful Use Stage 2, Aprima offers the facility of e-Prescribing, PQRS, Patient Portal, Drug Database, Interfacing, Document Management, etc. in its product for users.

Looking at the user feedback of Aprima from Research, users are complaining of mistrust on the company, not delivering the solution they promised initially, interfacing issues, performance issues, navigation issues and reliability issues.

However, Aprima has also been lauded for its flexibility, usability, customizable templates and inexpensive solution. Another area for which Aprima has received a lot of recognition is their support and physician acceptance.

Best EMR for 6-10 providers

1.       Epic

One of the biggest EMR companies in the industry, Epic serves over 230,000 users. (source: Capterra) It is suited for medium to large practices and caters to hospitals as well. Although it is a bit expensive, it offers server-based Ambulatory EMR and Practice Management solutions for providers. For Hospitals, it offers Inpatient EMR, Patient Accounting and Management and an integrated, Ambulatory EMR as well.

Epic has consistently been ranked amongst the top EMR providers in the country and has an overall satisfaction level of 85% in terms of sales, implementation, training, functionality, service and support. Users really appreciate the way Epic delivers its solutions and facilities. However, on the other hand, some users have complained frequently about the user interface of the product, which they say is old and below par implementation of the system.

2.       CureMD

The second best product which you can look to buy if you are serving up to 10 physicians is CureMD (http://www.curemd.com). Although we have talked at length at how this product is ideally suited for small to medium range practices, it is even suitable if you are serving more than that.

CureMD uses a single platform, single database architecture for its Electronic Medical Records and Practice Management solutions, allowing for a more robust, integrated and reliable package. On top of all, it is completely cloud-based, meaning that any user can access the CureMD application from virtually any device sitting in any part of the country and use the enterprise-grade solutions.

With an overall product score of 83% in Research, CureMD certainly ranks amongst the top EMR vendors in the country and is looking to be even better with its innovations and solutions designed to meet the challenges of the future.

CureMD users really appreciate the robust integration with labs and the user-friendliness of its EMR In addition, it offers the best mix of enterprise-class features at the most affordable price.

3.       AdvancedMD

Here is another product which is suited for medium to large practices and offers a great mix of products. It is offering a cloud-based solution comprising of Electronic Health Records, Practice Management and billing solutions. Ranked at number 12 on the list of most popular EMR vendors, AdvancedMD has a 78% customer satisfaction.

Although it is catering to only six specialties ranging from OB/GYN, Pediatrics, Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular to Pain Management, the vendor has quite a high user dissatisfaction level as far as Research is concerned. As of now, it has a overall user satisfaction level of only 38% while 52% of the clients are very dissatisfied with the product.

Their iPad app is also being rated as very basic and not being able to let physicians perform important tasks.

Best EMR for 11-25 providers

1.       GE Healthcare

Let’s now shift our attention to some of the big players in the market. GE Healthcare leads the way for systems built for the mass market. It is primarily catering to medium to large practices and hospitals. GE Healthcare, because of its massive backing from the multi-billion dollar parent company General Electric, has been able to cater to the top end of market.

GE Healthcare is offering solutions at a very minimal cost compared to some of the other products available in the market. However, their solution is not cloud-based and requires installation of a dedicated server to use the product.

On the other hand, GE Healthcare offers a wide range of products ranging from real-time location systems to practice management to ambulatory EMR to radiology and claims/clearinghouse facilities.

In addition, GE Healthcare also provides large scale health organizations with Enterprise Resource Planner (ERP) systems.

 2.       CureMD

Once again, our favorite EMR vendor CureMD makes the cut in this list as well. Over the years, as an independent observer, I have personally noticed how CureMD has catered to the mid market segment despite having a product that is ideally suited for up to medium sized practices.

The ability of CureMD to reduce cognitive overload, catering to specialty workflows and unique clinical approaches make it a perfect fit for your practice which caters to up to 25 providers.

The best feature is its ability to provide evidence based knowledge, rich specialty content and custom forms. It has a simple and intuitive user interface with automated history and default data import features. These protocols simplify and standardize care delivery and expedite encounter documentation.

On top of all, it is one solution that is completely interoperable in the truest sense of the word. It is able to connect with health information exchanges, labs, pharmacies, payers, imaging services, hospitals networks, referring providers and patients seamlessly.

3.       Practice Fusion

Practice Fusion ranks third in our list of health IT vendors which are offering solutions for practices catering up to 25 providers. The biggest advantage of using a Practice Fusion solution is that it is completely free of charge and does not require any fee for its setup.

A completely cloud-based solution, Practice Fusion is offering support for over 40 specialties in its EMR product. Additionally, it is offering lab integration, imaging services, support for pharmacies, ACOs, and billing solutions for its customers.

However, like they say, all that glitters is not gold and same is the case with Practice Fusion. Research suggests that a whopping 52% of its customers are unhappy with the product they are using. One of the biggest complaints users most frequently have is the limited functionality it offers when put to practice.

Best EMR for 26-100 providers

1.       eClinicalWorks

Arguably the best EMR vendor for large scale practices, eClinicalWorks has got it all. Offering server and cloud-based solutions, eClinicalWorks is catering practices ranging from solo providers to large scale hospitals. With over 370,000 users (source: Capterra), eClinicalWorks offers solutions at a very reasonable cost, starting from $449/month.

In its product, eClinicalWorks is offering Electronic Medical Records, Practice Management, Patient Portal and Billing services for its clients. Additionally, it is offering industry standard features such as Meaningful Use dashboards, Registry reporting, ePrescribing and Formulary checks, etc.

However, the situation as per Research is not all that rosy. A whopping 49% of its users are dissatisfied with its services with only 41% satisfied.

2.       McKesson

In terms of popularity, McKesson is perhaps the only one who matches eClinicalWorks through its cloud and server-based solution, albeit at a higher price. Like its competitor, McKesson is also catering for all types of medical practices ranging from solo to large scale ones including hospitals. With over 200,000 users, McKesson is by far one of the largest providers of EMR solutions across the US.

It is offering a patient-centered hospital information management system along with a practice management solution. With advanced features such as population health management, diagnostic imaging and enterprise intelligence, McKesson certainly covers all ends of the health IT market.

However, as per Research, McKesson is below par in terms of usability and overall vendor software average with a score just above 70. Quite shockingly, 61% of the users are dissatisfied with the solution McKesson is offering. Amongst some of the problem areas are poor customer support, and the product being terrible overall.

 3.       CureMD

Last but certainly not the least, and as clearly evident from the two top-end solutions designed for large scale practices, sometimes the biggest vendor is unable to deliver the solution that you are looking for. If the system is not improving physician workflows and they are unable to chart the way they do in real life, it is of no use. This is why CureMD ranks once again with the top end solutions as far as we are concerned. Their All-in-One solution is not expensive, built on solid grounds and is very intuitive and user friendly. On top of all, it works flawlessly with all medical devices and has superb lab, radiology and pharmacy integration.

Although designed to cater only to the small and medium practices, CureMD certainly has the infrastructure, vision, technology, support and experience to handle large scale practices and deliver a solution unlike other health IT vendors.

With this final classification, it brings us to the end of our discussion of selecting the best EMR by practice size in the United States. Depending on your medical practice, any of these systems can be a good fit for you. However, shifting to technology is never easy and takes a certain amount of time before its benefits can be fully realized.

How can physicians improve employee satisfaction at their practice?

In the service industry, it is crucial that organizations spend more on staff. The average payroll cost this year for Major League Baseball is 45% of the combined team revenue. That’s nearly half of what the team is earning throughout the season. According to the National Society of Certified Healthcare Business Consultants, roughly half of a practice’s operating costs are spent on staff.

Click here to learn about a state-of-the-art Electronic Health Record (EHR) solution from CureMD designed to improve workflows for physicians.

Physicians are highly trained and skilled individuals but quite a few of them suffer with their employee management skills. They are often ill-prepared and sometimes withdrawn to hire, train, manage or fire staff. So what are the most ideal ways to managing a practice’s most expensive and most required asset? Let’s discuss.

1. Know what you need: It is important to have written personnel policies for the practice. Everyone needs to know the entire flow and function of a practice in order to be expected to perform up to the required levels.
2. Know how to hire: Hiring someone who is very skilled but does not have the required skills will not get you anywhere. It is important to get the right person with the right attitude. See how the resource has been doing in his/her past experiences to be able to predict future behavior.
3. Train for results: Many practices fail to train their staff adequately. It is important to realize that you have to provide required training and then expect results.
4. Create performance expectations: Items such as dress code, work schedule adherence and HIPAA compliance are requirements of the job where failure to adhere results in termination. Remember, ongoing specific feedback is important for not only you but also for the staff.
5. Conduct purposeful reviews: Constantly reviewing and measuring performing against set benchmarks is crucial for success. You need to make sure that you inform the staff about their performance levels regularly in order to keep the performance up to the mark.
6. Be consistent: Don’t change policies every now and then. If you have established a set policy for the whole staff to follow, stick with it.
7. Praise publicly, give private feedback: It is important to give feedback to an employee privately if it is a negative one. Respecting someone in the public will go a long way in improving job satisfaction.
8. Motivate: In case nothing is working in case of an employee at your practice, try some unique motivational techniques to get the job done.

If all else fails, then maybe it is time to let the employee go. Remember, it is as important to let go of a sub-par employee as making your practice a success.

Patient EHR Education: A Slow Process

In a recent article published on the online survey conducted by Xerox, a company with over 75 years of experience in document management and helping organizations become efficient businesses, revealed that “majority of Americans (83 percent) have concerns, such as security, about EHRs and less than one-third (32 percent) want their medical records to be digital (compared to 82 percent and 26 percent in 2010, respectively).”

The notion of change is hardly encouraging, and with that in mind, how would providers fill the need to educate and involve their patients in engaging them in EHR Education? And as Healthcare providers who are seeking to achieve Meaningful Use Stage 2 incentives “which first become available for hospitals on Oct. 1, will have one year to make patients’ medical records available via online portals and must have 5 percent of their patients actually access the data. Currently, only 19 percent of the U.S. adults surveyed have access to their medical records online.” The stats are not encouraging as the push towards EHR adoption by Obama’s administration is clear.

As federal mandate demands that patients need to educate consumers about digital medical records. To train patients along with other staff members should be one of the top most priorities of the providers.

Familiarity with the Patient Portal is one platform, providers can use as a testing ground to improve provider-patient interaction. With Patient Portal, providers can schedule an appointment and communicate with their patients directly, by doing so they can avoid unnecessary visits of the patient to the practice. Training a patient to use online Patient Portal can be time consuming process, some patients may not be apt in using the online platform and it may very well be a headache for them.

To train require a special slot of time that providers need to take out for their patients. EHR education has been a slow for the patients primarily because of the untrained staff, and patients’ lack of interest in learning a new set of system which is either too slow or too difficult to learn.

As the EHR software improve and the need for patients to take active role in their patient engagement increases, the process of educating patients on EHR though a slow process will need to take an active part.

Read more: EMR Support – The Overlooked Questions

How are EHR better than EMR systems?

When it comes to using an EHR or EMR, one is far superior to the other. Let’s see which one performs advanced functions.

First of all, let’s elucidate how EHR and EMR are distinct from each other in a single word, interoperability. EHR is essentially an EMR with interoperability: the ability by which an EHR can share and exchange data among different platforms of healthcare. With one feature that makes EHR a better software than EMR, let’s move forward and see what other edges EHR has over  EMR.

EMRs limit the data of a patient to a facility. So, what happens in an EMR is that medical information of a patient is collected, changed, and discussed with providers and staff within a single organization. In the process of using an EHR, integrated data is shared, consulted, managed among more than one healthcare facility with providers and their staff; allowing providers and practitioners to be efficient in reaching out to the patient.

EHRs allow the information to be transformed systematically with the patient, allowing the process of going to a specialist, the hospital and even moving across states reachable between patient’s healthcare providers and practices. EMR lacks this capacity to reach beyond a single organization.

A simple yet very powerful feature of an EHR is that it reduces paperwork across platforms. The usage of data stored on printed paper is reduced by allowing the electronic data to be transferred seamlessly across multitudes of healthcare providers. EMR can save paper of a single organization, and the limiting factor of an EMR is that the data of a patient needs to be printed to take out of the organization while EHR because of its extensive reach is able to transcend this limitation.

EHR allows even the patients’ to see their past medical log for the past year. This compelling feature is absent in an EMR. It allows the patients’ to simulate energy in them to change their lifestyle; encouraging them to take medication with regularity, essentially decreasing the burden on the provider and improving their health.

With an , you can achieve higher Rate of Investment (ROI) by exchanging the data electronically among organizations, the healthcare providers save their costs in terms of reduction of staff members needed to mange patients’ data and the need to transfer patients’ information from one healthcare provider to another. Apart from that, EHR eliminates the need to do redundant tests on patients’ in turn saving costs.

In essence, EHR provides a higher degree of clinical decision making information by integrating patient data from numerous sources and with that it not only saves costs but proves itself a better system than an EMR.

Read more about: Avoid EHR Switching Mistakes To Save Your Practice From Unnecessary Costs

EMR – Thinking Outside the Box

Electronic Medical Records are an innovative tool for our healthcare system. With the paper file system running its due course, we have perfected it to the point where there are no further improvements or benefits derived.

Not just about record keeping anymore, EMR is transforming the healthcare industry. Electronic Medical Records not only overcome the limitations of traditional systems but offer unique possibilities of health information exchange, storage, access and retrieval. Data mining capabilities can add new dimensions to healthcare delivery along with medical research. Physicians can improve care quality through personalization and along with governments, determine better resource utilization to accommodate situations such as outbreaks and epidemics.

Slowly realizing the tremendous potential of interoperable EHRs, physicians, with the new age of healthcare knocking on the door, must adapt to newer technologies or risk becoming obsolete. A general health Florida based physician explained how he chose to adopt EMR “I had this lady come in with her grandson and she wanted me to provide her with an online health record along with access to the lab results. She explained how her grandson helps her look it up on the computer which saves her a phone call and sometimes even a trip. I just had to do it.”

With the advent of Accountable Care Organizations, the government is trying to replace the “fee for service method” with performance related compensation supporting evidence based practices. A dedicated fund for healthcare reform, the government plans to eradicate inefficiencies that have their roots deep inside the heart of the healthcare tree. Electronic Medical Record solutions are the answer for numerous problems faced by physicians today. From increasing productivity at the practices by streamlining clinical , administrative and financial workflows, EMR solution solutions are changing the face of the industry as we know it.

Read more: What you need to know about ACOs

EMR – Does Certification Matter

All key stakeholders in the Health IT industry such as care providers, experts, consultants, hospitals and practices are aware of the financial incentives instigated through the Meaningful Use program set up by the government. They are also aware of the requirements such as usage of Certified EMRs – a crucial component of the program that has been encouraging providers to adopt EHRs which have been certified. Hence, it is through the Meaningful Use program that the providers will be able to gain the incentives.

Considering that most physicians are not affiliated with modern technologies, many physicians in the United States do not have the awareness of Electronic Health Records and its certifications. Most think that an EHR software certified with CCHIT is the benchmark for a certified EMR  software product. What they do not realize is that it is not the approval of CCHIT that is the main requirement, it is actually the set of measures needed to be conformed to, based on which providers can get eh financial incentives for Meaningful Use. The set of measures include components such as the electronic recording of patient demographics, integration, and timely communication with patients, CPOE (Computerized Physician Order Entry), security parameters and information exchange with healthcare stakeholders.

An Ohio based consultant said, “The biggest dilemma amongst physicians, today, is the failure to understand the concept of Certified EHRs. Be it any industry, certification of a certain product comes by meeting the minimum requirements set by controlling authorities”

With the advent in modern technologies and regular upgrades to regulations by the government aimed at developing Electronic Health Records as an industry standard for the future, there is no doubt that such technologies provide physicians , patients and the whole industry with numerous benefits. It is therefore, crucial that providers select the right vendor and the ideal product for their practices.

A Nebraska based Health IT consultant said, “I can recall several so called “certified EHRs” which have caused disappointments amongst physicians. It is not always a one sided game, where vendors need to be careful while marketing their products. Physicians shouldn’t be negligent either while purchasing the product”.

Choosing an EMR – The Checklist

In the last part of this blog, I concluded that most care providers are unaware of the many different Electronic Medical Record (EMR) software solutions and the plethora of vendors making them available in the market. The notable reason for this is the general lack of awareness and how care providers are not tech-oriented, which is why they fail to comprehend the many advantages they can avail from EMR software’s and how getting to use one at their practices would be something unordinary.

I also pointed out that experts have suggested availing the full benefits of modern technology by opting for an EMR solution that is capable of integration with a Practice Management Software, Patient Portal and Medical Billing Service, so that providers can streamline and overhaul their clinical, administrative and financial workflows – making their work easy, efficient, profitable and reliable.

A Michigan based physician says, “My all-in-one EMR software solution is not only innovative but also affordable. From documenting clinical encounters to performing billing operations, I can do it all from a single platform. In fact, it is so affordable that even a solo provider could afford to automate practice workflows”

As the industry is moving towards patient engagement, and where patients want more control in their health care delivery process, it is important for providers to give them that opportunity. They can easily empower patients by opting for an EMR software that is integrated with a Patient Portal. This will also help providers in achieving Meaningful Use.

Also, another important point that providers should look at, Is whether they can trust their vendors for the products they say they are offering. Many providers would say that they are providing Patient Portals, when they might actually not – hence it is imperative that you choose a Certified vendor – who is CCHIT certified and HIPAA compliant so that you can qualify for incentives provided by the government.

As a care provider, you also have to make sure that you opt for a specialty specific EMR software solution, which caters to the specialties of providers at your practice. Research suggests that specialty specific EMR software’s help in improving productivity at the practice. Since the EMR software will be customized according to your specific specialty workflows, it will be easier for you to use the system.

The advent of modern technologies has lead to the evolution of EMR software’s as we know them. Clinical decision support systems, transcription, electronic prescriptions and point and click technologies have paved the way for EMR software success in the industry.

With every passing day, with patient’s health information being stored in EMR software systems across the nation, it has become crucial to safeguard such confidential data. Hence, providers should be on the lookout for secure systems which are in compliance with government security protocols.

Just like any other investment you make, an EMR software solution is your tool to optimize your workflows so that you get more reward from your business.