AS I SEE IT
Choose the Right EMR System How to perform proper due diligence to ensure that you get the best match for your ASC. BY JOE MACIES
T
here is a prevailing thought in the industry that it is not a matter of
if but when ASCs will be required to invest in an electronic medical records (EMR) system. As a result, many sur- gery centers are now making—or have already made—the switch from paper records to an EMR. A mandate is not the only rea-
son why ASCs should be proactive in their adoption of an EMR. An EMR provides significant advantages over paper records, helping an ASC en- hance patient safety and quality out- comes, improve operating room and overall operational efficiency, ensure compliance, reduce costs and deliver numerous other benefits to patients, physicians and staff. “Any organization that is not using an EMR will ultimately be spending more money to get inferior results,” says Charlie Immordino, RN, CASC, principal and president/chief executive officer of Ambulatory Surgery Cen- ter Consultants in Palm City, Florida. “With an EMR, you avoid redundancy. You increase profitability by analyzing the physician, equipment and supply utilization of the center. The manager gets on-the-spot answers as to how ef- ficiently the organization is working. You get easy and appropriate bench- marking without having to spend man- agement and staff time gathering data from individual charts. You get imme- diate reports. You get the assurance of accuracy in your charting.” To maximize these benefits completely,
an ASC needs to select an EMR system carefully. An ASC should look careful- ly for a system that meets and exceeds its specific needs, helps the facility meet federal requirements and accredi- tation standards, supports future facility
ing firm based in DeLand, Florida. “It is important to note that for ASCs to get the maximum benefits, they need to switch to an EMR specifically de- signed for an ASC,” she says. EMR systems designed for office practices might not include forms and OR-specific documentation necessary for ASC recordkeeping and compli- ance, while EMR systems designed for hospitals are expensive and include components not applicable to ASCs. Staff members may be forced to navi- gate these inapplicable components to access what they need for ASC use.
Make Informed Decisions
Learn more about selecting the right EMR system for your ASC at ASCA 2014 in Nashville, May 14– 17, 2014. For more information go to
ascassociation.org/ASCA2014.
growth and is backed by a vendor that understands the challenges facing sur- gery centers.
Identify Vendors
The first step in the selection process is to identify appropriate EMRs for consideration. There are several dif- ferent ways to assemble a list, includ- ing speaking to colleagues about their EMR, visiting EMR vendors exhibiting at conferences and researching options online and in various industry publica- tions.
If you end up with a long list, it will be helpful to narrow it down. One effective way to do that is to take the advice of Anne Dean, RN, founder of The ADA Group, an ASC consult-
10 ASC FOCUS NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2013
Evaluation Criteria Checklist Before evaluating the options on your shorter list more closely, put together a checklist of EMR evaluation criteria. This will aid with the decision-making process as it will help you take note of the different qualities of the EMRs and of their vendors that are important to all of the stakeholders in your ASC. Harmony Surgery Center in Fort Collins, Colorado, used such a check- list when it was performing its EMR research, says Rebecca R. Craig, RN, CASC, chief executive officer of the ASC. “We put together a spreadsheet with EMR criteria
information from
the American Health Information Man- agement Association (AHIMA). This provided clear criteria to help us make a decision and ensured we weren’t just looking at whether one system was vi- sually more attractive than the other or which one had more bells and whistles. We wanted to stick to that AHIMA crite- ria when we were selecting our system.” Consider including the following in the checklist:
The advice and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent official Ambulatory Surgery Center Association policy or opinion.
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