Want to Get to Full EMR?

No one disputes that patient care quality and physician satisfaction will improve when an electronic health record system is in place where patient medical records can be accessed in a secured system on a need to know basis by the patient's health care practitioners.

The software and hardware required to fully implement EMR is readily available.

The challenge is implementation. Change is never easy. And the move from a paper blizzard office to paper free is revolutionary and risky. There is a lot that can go wrong when the change touches every one and affects every task in a medical practice. It's easy to understand why an office attempting to go paperless may not succeed.

QBS understands the flow of information through a medical practice, whether paper or electronic and the systems and software needed to manage, store and retrieve both paper and electronic documents. Additionally QBS is familiar with setting-up scanning processes to convert paper to electronic digital format. In short QBS has the experience and the capability to assist you in developing and implementing a plan to become a full EMR office.

We can help you avoid the pitfalls and roadblocks on the path to becoming an EMR practice. In analyzing the successes and failures the most common problems are:

• Failure to obtain buy-in of the clinical and support staff can doom a project. There must be a commitment to change evidenced by a belief within the practice that change must occur for the organization to survive or to prosper. It's a costly, frustrating and futile effort if key players aren't willing to use an EMR.
  
  
• All EMR solutions are not created equal; some are more flexible and user friendly than others. The conversion is more likely to succeed if the system allows the physicians to practice medicine the way they are used to.
  
  
• A dated Practice Management Systems (PMS) written in a proprietary code will limit EMR efficiency and reduce the economic benefits. A seamless communication between EMR and PMS is required to be fully effective. The more adaptable EMR systems are Microsoft Office based while some of the earlier PMS packages were written in private code and not easily connected to a Microsoft based EMR package.
  
  
• Inadequate planning can create unexpected roadblocks causing delay and frustration in implementation. Detailed analysis of existing processes and developing detailed plans for the new processes may not seem critical, but without them a workflow change can go undetected until the system goes operational.
  
  
• True financial rewards must be evident, and not at the expense of patient care quality. The sooner financial benefits become clear the more likely there will be successful EMR implementation. Seeing improvements in workflow and practice efficiency are early indicators that EMR implementation is on track.
  
  
• Too much, too fast increases the risk of failure. In a fully installed EMR the practice needs to become completely paperless, including automating the patient chart, prescriptions, office notes, transcriptions, lab results and charge capture. All of this can take months to implement. Risk of failure and cost overruns can be substantially reduced with incremental implementation.

Are you ready for full EMR? Call QBS today at (419) 693-2444. Or email us at qbs@qbsohio.com.