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Opportunity Cost of EMRs

Different studies have shown EMR to have been extremely beneficial to providers and patients while […]

Different studies have shown EMR to have been extremely beneficial to providers and patients while others have shown the use of EMRs to increase the incurred costs drastically. For a doctor looking to implement EMR at the office, reports suggesting varied conclusions can be very confusing.

Doctors who are used to paper records are having a seriously hard time trying to transition from paper charts to Electronic Medical Records. These seasoned providers have to be clear that the transition to a digital world will take place no matter how much they protest against it because overall, the healthcare community is endorsing the use of Digital Health Records to enhance their capabilities and workflow efficiencies. Also, when the government has mandated the compliance with Meaningful Use, doctors are left with the choice to get on the digital boat and start paddling along, or stay behind and erode in the sands of time.

Recently, the Journal of the American Medical Association, in an article, commented on the advantages of Meaningful Use and said, “Meaningful use provisions will help improve legibility of clinical records, reduce prescription errors, improve adherence to guidelines, improve patients’ access to their records, and ensure that clinicians and hospitals are capable of exchanging clinical data.”

So, providers should consider looking at the benefits EMR has to offer because weighing the pros against the cons will make it easier for them to adapt to digital healthcare. They should realize that digital records and electronic medical records save a lot of paper used and storage space. Before, a doctor’s office would be filled with loads and loads of files and folders scattered across the front desk, storage rooms and offices. Now, with the advent of integrated EMRs, that storage room can be utilized for something else because there would hardly be a file to put over there. If a fire breaks out, the doctor is going to lose some, if not most of the medical records present on the premises, but if the records are being entered into an EMR system, then every last piece of information is safe from harm and can be accessed through another computer system.

 

Hence, the opportunity cost of implementing EMR at your workplace, is the loss of benefit that you will have derived from its adoption. It is as simple as that.


Frank Quinn

The writer is a leading Health IT analyst contributing regularly on some of the most pressing topics like Electronic Health Records, Practice Management, eRx, Patient Portal, Billing Services, Compliance and Privacy and Security.

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