You and your healthcare IT (HIT) team have set up the medical computers and other equipment throughout the healthcare group. This is in part in preparation for the new electronic medical records (EMR) system that's to go live in the coming months. As you sit exhausted in your office, you get a message from upper management. They're wondering how much, again, is the EMR savings from all this stuff.
If this scenario sounds all too real, don't worry. Today we cover the benefits of EMR systems, namely how they save groups in four distinct situations. The important thing to remember in all of them is that savings will occur over time and affect the bottom line positively.
EMR Savings by Reducing Office Supply Expenses
Paper, as any office manager will tell you, is a major cost. And it's a definite strain in healthcare, which spends a staggering $18 billion to $22 billion each year on paper-based processes like patient files and their manual processing and storage.
Unsurprisingly, EMR can significantly reduce the need for paper. A solo practitioner with an average 30 patients-a-day workload could see monthly expenses drop $400 to $500 alone from paper-based fees.
It's not just having physical copies that's expensive. It's been reported that 77 percent of providers still send bills through the post office to patients. That's a massive expense given a typical, single Forever stamp in the US costs 63 cents at the time of this writing. The EMR savings by sending emails would be substantial.
Some medical clinics and hospitals resort to using fax machines to minimize their costs, especially in mailings. It's estimated that up to 40 percent of referrals among providers are done through fax. Yet fax use is more costly than EMR, with each piece costing between $6 to $11 in labor cost for office staff. It's even higher for the provider, who's calculated to be spending the equivalent of $20 on each piece faxing.
How EMR Cuts Staff Costs While Increasing Productivity
Pulling out and filing back paper files is a tedious and boring job. An EMR system replaces the need for a full-time medical records clerk. This can be a savings of $2,000 or more each month depending on their pay.
This opens up new opportunities for the medical office. The former clerk, instead of being let go, can be retrained to work another essential position. Front desk is one example. They could also man the nursing station where they would handle visitors and other non-medical duties. This lessens the work on other staff members. It can also help save on costs since there's less need to pay overtime or for temp workers.
Medical transcriptionists, who would transcribe provider's audible and/or written notes into formal documents, are increasingly seeing their duties taken over by EMR. Savings can be substantial, with the median salary of a transcriptionist around $30,000 a year.
Unlike file clerks, transcriptionists cannot easily be retrained for other duties. Their skill sets are too specialized. However, offices continuing to need their services can consider keeping them on a part-time basis.
Use EMR Systems to Carve Out More Patient Time
EMR systems can increase time saving by making many processes more streamlined. This is especially true in medical offices and departments. A couple of examples would be:
- Provide pre-filled templates of common patient complaints and diagnosis. Providers, instead of having to write each one every time, can simply bring up one on the medical tablet and fill it in. This saves time and lessens the workload.
- Create reminders to send out to patients for follow up calls and/or appointments.
- Automatically check there are no conflicts in treatment plans like dangerous drug interactions.
- Automated prescriptions that are transferred to a pharmacy of your choice before the patient even leaves the doctor's office.
Individually, EMR savings from the above tools is a small amount of time per visit. But in total, it will have a financial impact. A provider who saw an average slate of 30 patients per day could potentially see an additional two more by cutting two minutes spent with all patients. Revenue could reach up to $50,000 a year if the change brought in an extra $100 per patient per year. This is possible thanks to the tools provided by EMR.
EMR Savings Due to Government Incentives
Finally, EMR systems pay themselves back thanks to public funding. The CMS Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program, also known as "Meaningful Use," encourages EMR use by offering incentives to providers. Those participating in the federal Medicare EHR Incentive program can be reimbursed for as much as $44,000 over a period of five years. The Medicaid EHR Incentive Program, which is run at the state level, that figure is $63,750 over the course of six years.
Closing Thoughts
To many healthcare groups, rolling out a new EMR system can be a daunting task. The costs, especially, may take out a big bite off an already very limited budget. In the long run, EMRs bring savings in various ways as they replace wastes like paper or non-essential processes, or improve efficiency.
Contact an expert at Cybernet if you're interested in the EMR savings one gets systems and how equipment like medical computers add to that bottom line.