Like this article? PLEASE +1 it! Evan Signature
Evan Carmichael Top Header
Share for a Cause









The Right People to Implement Electronic Medical Records

Guest post by: Peter Polack

Article Overview: To implment EMR at your practice, you will need to have the right people in place. An implementation team should be formed from several key departments.

Free Download - Social Networking and Work By Peter Polack
Name: Email:

The Right People to Implement Electronic Medical Records

It is important to have staff involvement properly implement an electronic medical records system properly. No single person can realize this job single-handedly, no matter how skilled they are.

Staff members will be aware that a new EPM system will have a sweeping effect on billing and scheduling. They will understand the risks that they are up against, and may feel pressure. The administrators should understand the concerns employees will raise when they discuss a new system. At times we experienced resistance from staff.

A group of power-users should be created. These people should be the first ones trained on aspects of the new system, who then take the example to the rest of the staff. These power-users should come from a variety of areas:

1) Information Technology

2) Administration

3) Office Staff

4) Clinical

5) Front Desk

6) Compliance

In order for the new system to succeed, this committee must take charge of the project. Our practice formed a committee which could hold meetings as it saw fit. This group of people had taken the project from the very beginning, and some put in evenings and weekends as they had the power of decision-making and the responsibilities that come with it. Confidence in individuals and the group gradually grew.

Some key players include:

Front Desk Staff

This groupprovides valuable input from the perspective of the end-users; their tasks include check-in, check-out, posting charges, and scheduling. Their critical job at the present time is the manual posting of the chargeswhen the patient checks out. This will be even more significant in the near-future when the EMR module posts charges automatically in real-time. Having the time to get the bugs out of this process helped support our initial decision to postpone EMR implementation until the staff was acclimated.

Clinical Staff

Although not as vital during this phase of EPM conversion, their participation will be key to the success of the integration of the EMR into the practice in a few months. Nevertheless, it is important to for them to be involved in the early stages of planning; it is helpful for them to have an appreciation for what the non-clinical staff does and how the EMR will fit into the entire scheme of things.

IT Specialist

This person should be involved from the beginning,before choosing the EMR software. If a practice cannot justify the expense of a full-time IT specialist, an IT consultant should be retained. Because we knew that conversion to EMR was just part of our overall strategic plan, we felt we could justify hiring a full-time IT specialist. In fact, due to this person's expertise in software licensing, Internet communications, and hardware networking, the changes that were incorporated into the practice eventually paid for his annual salary.

Coding/Billing Specialist

These employees should also have a voice in the initial software selection process. They helped to minimize the hiccups we experienced when switching from our old EPM system to the new one. On their recommendation, we performed a trial run on the new system prior to completely abandoning our old system. This allowed our IT specialist to verify that the posting and billing were being performed correctly. Someone technically proficient with coding and compliance issues will be invaluable when the EMR module goes live, to prevent under- or over-coding and ensure HIPAA compliance.

The physicians in our practice felt it was essential to empower the EMR committee with the authority to plan and manage the EPM/EMR integration from the beginning. The managing partners meet on a regular basis with our administrator for status reports but oversight of the nuts and bolts of the entire process is handled in a laissez faire manner. As mentioned previously, the success of this project depends in large part on the involvement of all members of the organization.

Related Articles
  Improve Workflow at Your Practice with Electronic Medical Records
  Is Your Staff Ready for Electronic Medical Records?
  A Brief Summary of the HITECH Act for new medical practices
  Medical Practices Beware! Time is Running Out To Avoid Electronic Medical Records Stimulus Penalties!
  Staff Training : The Process

Home > Human-Resources > Peter Polack > The Right People to Implement Electronic Medical Records
Article Tags: bugs, compliance, critical job, decision making, desk staff, electronic medical records, emr, end users, epm, evenings, front desk, information technology, initial decision, medical records system, office staff, power users, present time, resistance, staff involvement, staff members

About the Author: Peter Polack
RSS for Peter's articles - Visit Peter's website

Peter J Polack MD blogs on www.MedicalPracticeTrends.com about medical practice management, and is the technology columnist for Ophthalmology Management magazine, where he writes about electronic medical records (EMR) implementation and the application of technology to the medical practice. He is a managing partner for a large multi-subspecialty ophthalmology practice in central Florida and co-founder of Protodrone, a software development firm with an emphasis on medical and optical lab solutions.

Get his Free Reports:
Recession-Proof Your Medical Practice

Getting Through the EMR Maze!

Click here to visit Peter's website
Dashed Line

More from Peter Polack
Top Causes of EMR Implementation Failure
The Right People to Implement Electronic Medical Records
Training The Plan
Are You Spying on Your Employees
The Best Way to Manage Your EMR Project


Related Forum Posts
Hello, from Virginia Beach, Va Hello, from Virginia Beach, Va - Hello everyone, My name is Cheree Owens CEO of Labs To Go. We provide Mobile Medical and Testing services in your home or place of business nationwide. I am happy to be on this forum surrounded by entrepreneur mindsets. I am interested in meeting new people to network with. I am also interested in meeting those interested in saving time and money, whether it's for yourself or your business. My vision led me to create Labs To Go because I seen a need. I have been in the Medical field for over 14 years and enjoy helping people. I am always open to new ideas and learning from others. My famous quote, "Success leaves clues." labstogo dot com
Re: Bad SEO techniques? Re: Bad SEO techniques? - There are few more techniques which also known as the Bad SEO Techniques or Black Hat SEO Techniques. Such as: - Relying on keyword metatags - Purchase Links (From Spamming or blacklisted sites or doing purchase links on high level for site marketing) - Horde Page Rank: This is one of my favorites, because it's one that most webmasters don't understand yet. This is because it changed over the past year or two. The concept people have in their mind is that page rank is a key part of site rankings and linking to other sites "leaks page rank" from your site. However, the world has changed. - Swap Links: Another oldie, but not goodie. Search engines want links to represent endorsements. Swapped links represent barter, and they are trivial to detect. Don't swap links for the purpose of building page rank. It's a waste of your time - Implement duplicate content - Use Session IDs on your URLs - Use lots of Javascript - Implement your site in Flash
Re: Bad SEO techniques? Re: Bad SEO techniques? - [quote="WebBizIdeas.com":1jr37kqx]There are few more techniques which also known as the Bad SEO Techniques or Black Hat SEO Techniques. Such as: - Relying on keyword metatags - Purchase Links (From Spamming or blacklisted sites or doing purchase links on high level for site marketing) - Horde Page Rank: This is one of my favorites, because it's one that most webmasters don't understand yet. This is because it changed over the past year or two. The concept people have in their mind is that page rank is a key part of site rankings and linking to other sites "leaks page rank" from your site. However, the world has changed. - Swap Links: Another oldie, but not goodie. Search engines want links to represent endorsements. Swapped links represent barter, and they are trivial to detect. Don't swap links for the purpose of building page rank. It's a waste of your time - Implement duplicate content - Use Session IDs on your URLs - Use lots of Javascript - Implement your site in Flash[/quote:1jr37kqx] Hi Jeff, Thanks for adding to the list. I have one question, though. How would one implement Session IDs for a URL, and what benefit would come from doing so?
Re: Require Info on CAD Fed/Prov Grants for Restaurant Start-up Re: Require Info on CAD Fed/Prov Grants for Restaurant Start-up - Hello everybody, I am a Hispanic woman who is going to become a Medical Lab Technician. I have decided to go back to school after having first child a little over a year ago. I have already been accepted into the program, but I am trying to find all the funding I can. I have already applied for Pell Grant and Subsidized Student loans, but the Pell Grant only covered 3 of the 4 classes. So I am looking into grants? Will I qualify this? Please help me.
Re: Bad SEO techniques? Re: Bad SEO techniques? - [quote="WebBizIdeas.com":1a8vvwse]There are few more techniques which also known as the Bad SEO Techniques or Black Hat SEO Techniques. Such as: - Relying on keyword metatags - Purchase Links (From Spamming or blacklisted sites or doing purchase links on high level for site marketing) - Horde Page Rank: This is one of my favorites, because it's one that most webmasters don't understand yet. This is because it changed over the past year or two. The concept people have in their mind is that page rank is a key part of site rankings and linking to other sites "leaks page rank" from your site. However, the world has changed. - Swap Links: Another oldie, but not goodie. Search engines want links to represent endorsements. Swapped links represent barter, and they are trivial to detect. Don't swap links for the purpose of building page rank. It's a waste of your time - Implement duplicate content - Use Session IDs on your URLs - Use lots of Javascript - Implement your site in Flash[/quote:1a8vvwse] I wouldn't think of "relying on keyword metatags", "using lots of javascript", and "implementing your site in Flash" as bad/black hat...just ineffective. The search engines don't pay much attention to keyword metatags, and using javascript/flash just means the search engines can't "read" it (so if your menu is javascript, for instance, the search engine won't see any keywords you might have in there.)


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.



Featured Article


Bottom Footer
Share for a Cause












Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!
Name:
Email:
Popular Articles

What is an Adaptive Organization

Igniting Your Unstoppable Business Destiny

When Living the Dream isn't enough!

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.