Save the date, Full EHR by 2014
Posted on Fri, Jul 06, 2012 @ 10:48 AM
Full EHR by 2014, means that hospitals need to implement Electronic Health Records in their practice to ensure effective administration of the healthcare sector; the current federal procedures require that hospitals and other healthcare institutions should adopt the EHR/EMR systems by 2014. The implementation process includes:
Planning for transition and staff training
To successfully implement the EHR; each hospital needs to plan for transition from paper to electronic systems. The most essential thing is to ensure that the personnel are well prepared for this transition; there should be adequate training of all the staff that is expected to use the systems. People skills such as communication, leadership, and staff training are mandatory to successfully implement it. This therefore calls for an effective change management and reshuffle in various departments to ensure there is a new information managing paradigm in healthcare.
System acquisition
The organization must make the decision of whether to use the integrated systems strategy or to employ the `best of breed’ approach early enough. Other decisions that the organization should make is whether to look for commercial vendors or to produce the clinical IT system personally to cut on costs.
The organization then moves to the process of actual acquisition of the system; the decision on what acquisition process to use should be made carefully. This is ensure that the organization acquires the best system to fit their needs.
Implementing the system
Implementing the system requires the help and support of every member of the organization; every member of the staff should be familiar with their role in implementing the system. Staff cooperation therefore, ensures that the system work well; system control and evaluation also becomes easy.
After the system has been put in place and it becomes operational; any errors should be identified and corrected.
EHR benefits and acquiring market share.
Having the right EHR not only makes the organization acquire efficiency but it also helps them to gain a market share in terms of technological progress.
They improve the documentation of hospitals records with legible and organized data through integrated practice management softwares.
They improve the E&M coding accuracy and comply with audit regulations by ensuring correct data, procedures and diagnosis codes.
The systems reduce billing errors and assure privacy of financial reports of a hospital; they eliminate any loss of charges, make coding easy and increases hospital revenue.