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With advance planning, practices can run efficiently after EHR implementation
Researching an EHR system and its applications can lead to better access to information and better time management.
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One of the major concerns among eye care professionals regarding implementation of electronic health records is how it will affect time management and patient care once the system is up and running. However, these concerns are mostly due to lack of understanding. Based on my experience as a practice administrator who successfully implemented ManagementPlus, an ophthalmic-specific EHR, I can offer several tips for making the most out of your EHR system and ensuring that neither efficiency nor patients suffer.
Beforehand, do research
Viewing an EHR on a demo or as a template at a meeting is not sufficient research for making the best decision for your practice. Reach out to the EHR vendor and request contact information for other users. Go off site, and see how the system works in an actual practice setting, talking to current users about how the system benefits them. They will most likely tell you more pros and cons than you could garner from your own investigative research. Additionally, you may be able to build a support system with your peers by forging these connections.
Katrina Heath
Total integration
Total integration allows EHR to flow seamlessly. We chose a vendor that provides all areas of practice management, including billing, scheduling and optical point-of-sale, as well as custom reporting. There are many systems that require you to work with two different vendors: one to support practice management and the other to support EHR. If there is ever a problem, they end up blaming each other, sending you back and forth between the two vendors. Dealing with one company for all your needs makes everyone’s life easier. It is also easier to meet requirements from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in order to avoid being penalized. This is necessary to consider because ophthalmology, as a whole, has an older patient population. Accordingly, you will need to meet CMS requirements for a good portion of your patients.
Consider customization
Review the EHR template and determine if it will work for you. If the template is more than sufficient, you will only need to change small items within the original template, and you can avoid creating steps that may not be necessary for your practice. However, if you realize that your practice needs a customized template, or if you want to eliminate a field, some vendors will allow you to edit the template yourself through a form designer. Alternatively, you can contact the vendor directly to edit the forms for you; however, having the ability to customize your own templates is a major benefit. As an added bonus, data can be changed for one user without having to update the entire system. Sometimes physicians want a specific change that no other doctor would want.
Time management
We have been able to manage our time more efficiently through better audit control and documentation. When we are logged onto our EHR, it allows us to see which users are actively performing specific tasks in the system. With the flow manager, we can tell how long a patient is waiting with each technician and how long it takes the patient to run through each part of the office, which allows us to streamline our protocols and processes. One of the great benefits of EHR is if a patient contacts us with an emergency, the physicians are able to log in from any location and view that patient’s medical records to give current and accurate medical information without ever pulling a chart or leaving their location. It is important to note that a scribe, for each doctor, is an essential part to successfully being able to see the same number of patients as you were seeing with paper charts. Physicians who input the information into the EHR system themselves are finding it difficult to keep the same patient load.
Tailor training to staff members
Every practice should have a “super user:” someone who knows the EHR system completely and is trained on all aspects of it in order to be a resource to the team. Also, if I find someone is having a specific problem, I create a tutorial video showing the staff member how to perform the specific troublesome task so that I am not just showing him or her one time but creating an easily accessible resource. I email the video to the staff member, who will always have it to refer back to instead of having to ask the question again or contact the vendor. I am constantly training staff to make sure they are using the EHR efficiently. I watch office employees go through the system and show them ways in which they can work more efficiently. I show them, for example, that instead of clicking five times in one location, they can click once in another location for the same information. I want the EHR to work for us; I don’t want us to work for the EHR.
Audit records
When you first implement EHR, audit every single record for a period of time to make sure files are accurate. If you fail to audit records, you will never know if technicians are entering information correctly or if the scribe is omitting important information or entering erroneous information. You can run a million reports, but at the end of the day, it is not the same as viewing the records yourself.
No matter which system you choose, use the system in its entirety; that is how you will get the most money and efficiency out of your EHR. EHRs are designed to make our jobs easier, providing better access to information, better time management and, ultimately, better patient care.