Electronic medical records (EMR) play a vital role in today's healthcare. They're used in everything from diagnosing patients to getting paid for services. This makes EMR implementation critical to the medical group's short- and long-term goals and success.
- Understanding EMR Systems and Their Role
- What Is EMR Implementation?
- The Benefits of EMR Implementation
- Navigating EMR Implementation Challenges
- Eight Steps for a Successful EMR Implementation
Understanding EMR Systems and Their Role
An electronic medical record is a digital version of a patient's chart. EMR systems manage those records. The following are common ways they're used in healthcare.
- Patient charting: Providers and medical staff access, view, and update patients' complete medical history in real-time.
- Lab connectivity: Providers can order, review, and update medical tests and results as soon as they're available.
- Medical prescription: Authorized staff can process medication requests to patients' pharmacies within seconds.
- Remote patient monitoring and assisted care: Medical staff can watch patients and their vitals in real-time from a distance.
- Billing forms: Accounting and financial departments can access and process all billable transactions.
What Is EMR Implementation?
EMR implementation is the rollout of an EMR system (or systems!) throughout a medical group. It can involve digitizing your group's handwritten paper records, switching to new EMR software, or a combination of both.
The Benefits of EMR Implementation
The healthcare industry is constantly seeking ways to provide high-quality care for patients. Here are some ways EMR systems benefit your organization.
- Save space: In the past, medical offices and clinics stored, managed and retrieved patient paper records. Such storage took up valuable space. Since EMR systems keep all records in one place, they free up space for greater patient care.
- Optimize workflows: Scheduling appointments, pulling up records, and checking in patients are routine and time-consuming tasks. EMR systems reduce such workloads, freeing the staff to focus on providing greater customer service and patient care.
- Reduce errors: Misspellings of a patient's name, wrong medications, and other such errors slow patient care or are disastrous in some instances. EMRs reduce errors by flagging them. They can also note other issues like medication conflicts and duplicate treatments.
- More accessibility: Normally, paper records were viewed and updated by a single provider. Having them viewed by more than one person could be tedious, involving making copies, mailing them out, reconciling any updates from each person, etc. On the other hand, EMRs could be viewed by multiple providers simultaneously and in real-time through medical computers. They can do so even remotely, like in a different room or country. Medical teams can then work from the same page in complicated procedures like organ transplants.
Navigating EMR Implementation Challenges
The benefits of EMR systems are numerous. The flip side is that EMR systems are necessarily complex to provide such diversity. Here are a few pitfalls to consider when implementing EMR in your medical group.
- Workflow Disruption: You'll see a slowdown in regular processes and procedures as staff work with the new system.
- Limited Interoperability / Data Migration: Your older medical devices and equipment may not be able to communicate with the EMR. Or healthcare IT may experience hiccups in matching records to the new system's own record fields.
- Staff Resistance: Your employees may just stick to working with the old system, refusing to learn the new one.
- Inadequate or Time-Consuming Training: Employees learning the new system find it confusing and constantly ask questions or for help.
- High Costs: Implementing EMR is expensive, from the cost of software and hardware to training and support.
Eight Steps for a Successful EMR Implementation
So you and your medical group decide the new system is worth it. What's the best way to roll one out with the fewest issues?
EMR implementation takes significant planning, collaboration, and coordination. Your rollout plan should include the following major steps and best practices:
Step 1. Plan an EMR Implementation Roadmap
Create a checklist of all necessary tasks. For example:
- Who are the stakeholders?
- What's the budget?
- What are the exact features you'll want in the EMR system?
One task you'll definitely want to jot down is how you will approach each one. There are two approaches:
- The modular approach breaks tasks down into smaller and simpler subtasks. Different people and teams are assigned to them to complete.
- The step-by-step approach has you complete each task before going on to the next one.
Step 2. Define Your Budget
Your healthcare group will most likely provide the funding for EMR implementation. When allocating funds for various tasks like medical computers and training, keep the goal of improving healthcare service quality while lowering costs in mind.
Factors in EMR implementation costs to consider:
- EMR software systems (base and monthly)
- Computer Hardware
- Training and development
- Integration and testing
- Technical support
Recently, many medical groups have been looking into artificial intelligence running on their EMRs. If you're one of those groups, research AI computers to ensure the higher costs help achieve your goals.
Step 3. Appoint Strong Project Leaders
You'll need a team to ensure each process and task on the plan is done on time and within the budget. Typical team members include:
- Project management /practice manager – manages the EMR implementation, including post-rollout testing.
- Application analyst – responsible for the EMR's data migration and cleansing.
- Application developer – customizes the EMR system.
- QA test engineer – responsible for EMR system testing and performance.
- Physician advocate – gives the provider's view on the software's training, data, and testing.
- Nurse advocate – provides the nurse's view on the software's training, data, and testing.
- Billing advocate – represents the accounting and billing department's viewpoint on the software.
Step 4. Select the Right EMR Software
EMRs are complex programs with multiple capabilities and features. Selecting the right electronic medical record is one of the most challenging tasks in EMR implementation.
The following steps can help narrow down your selection.
1. What are your priorities with the EMR?
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- Cost control
- User-friendliness
- Cloud-based hosting
- Implementation and training
- Integration with current systems
- Customer service
- Be EMR certified by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology
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2. Contact EMR vendors. Ask for Requests for Information (RFI) and Request for Proposals (RFP) from each. Disregard those that are not HIPAA compliant.
3. Have your team evaluate the RFIs and RFPs. How well do they match your priorities?
4. Create a shortlist of the top three to four vendors.
5. Bring in the vendors to demonstrate their systems. Ask questions. For example, is an optimal medical-grade monitor working with the EMR?
6. Finally, select your vendor.
Step 5. Prepare Your Technology Infrastructure
In this step, your team preps your group's networks to ensure its infrastructure is ready for the new system. For example, ensure there's enough bandwidth and processing power to work effectively with the software.
Step 6. Test and Troubleshoot Your System
This step covers transferring the old system's data to the new one. Points to ponder:
- What needs to be transferred? Which fields?
- Convert paper records into electronic ones.
- Clean and verify the data.
- Set up the EMR database.
- Migrate data to the new system.
- Test and verify that all old and newly entered medical data and records are correctly placed.
It goes without saying that you should have a backup strategy in case issues arise with the new EMR system.
Step 7. Train Your Users
You should start this step as soon as possible, as training ensures users jump onto the new system when it goes live, thus minimizing workplace disruption.
Two training methods are usually available:
- Self-paced training has staff members reading user guides and watching instructional videos.
- On-site instruction brings in an instructor who comes to the workplace to teach users.
Step 8. Make Continuous Improvements
This last step has you and your team evaluating the software and ensuring it's meeting your goals. Points to ponder should include:
- Is the new system profitable, both in the short- and long-term?
- Are data error rates acceptable?
- What do our patients think of the new system?
- What do our providers think of the new system?
Make EMR Implementation a Breeze with Cybernet Computers
Electronic medical records are essential to today's healthcare, and they are used in everything from simplifying workflow issues like error reduction to refilling prescriptions promptly. Rolling out EMR systems, called EMR implementation, is a long and complex process due to the scope and functions involved. Medical groups can keep rollout issues to a minimum through a well-defined roadmap, a proficient implementation team, and meticulous step-by-step planning.
Contact a Cybernet team professional if you're looking to implement an EMR system throughout your medical organization. Major healthcare groups run their systems on our medical-grade PCs, medical tablets, and medical box PCs, finding them robust, reliable, and cost-effective for their medical record wants and needs.