Electronic Medical Records / PLUGGED IN
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Making the Switch
Implementing electronic medical records takes planning, but it will pay off.
by Marie Rosenthal, MS I
mplementing electronic medical records (EMRs) into a practice can be scary and difficult. Practice owners can make it easier on themselves and
their staff by remembering the old Boy Scout motto: “Be prepared.” Long before you talk to any vendors,
figure out what you want to accomplish by using EMRs. Do you want to create a more efficient workflow? Decrease the number of staff? Capture missed charges? Practice better medicine? Reduce medical errors? Make EMRs legible? Understanding what you want to accomplish will help you choose a sys- tem that is right for your practice and will be important when you are creating or tailoring templates and reports that will help you reach these goals. “It is up to the [owners and staff] of
the practice to decide why they want to computerize the medical records,” says Kimberly Smith-Akin, PhD, MT (ASCP), CPHIMS, who teaches health informat- ics at the University of Texas. “Are they going to be doing some sort of analysis of the data to decrease costs or improve the delivery of care? Are they trying to decrease staffing or eliminate the cost of paper? Practices have to understand what they hope to accomplish before they begin, because making the transition from paper to electronic is a lot of work. “If increasing revenue is the goal, how
are they going to maximize that? They will need a system that will allow them to capture all the items and services they
Trends magazine, November 2012
Analyze your workflow and processes, and decide how the EMRs will work in the system. You might have to make changes to adapt to an electronic system.
should charge for in a way that fills the medical chart but also notes the charges for billing.” Technical consultant Nancy Dewitz
suggests that veterinarians take a critical look at their existing practice manage- ment (PM) software. It might be possible to upgrade the existing PM software to include EMRs. “I work with many practices going
through this dilemma,” she says. “Often, what they have is fine. They just are not using it to full capacity. I encourage them to sit down and evaluate what they want in their practice and what they are trying to accomplish.”
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