The fundamental principle of any Electronic Medical Record being implemented at a practice is that all members of the practice should be well aware and committed to the implementation. Otherwise, it can cost the practice a lot to train its members and make everyone realize the benefits of EMR. The idea of having everyone being aware of the situation is that if during the implementation process, members are unaware of how to go about the implementation, and it can have a negative impact on the overall productivity of the practice.
When every member is on board about the decision, the next step is to hire a consultant who can be trusted with the hardware, software and training staff members. Ideally, the consultant should be someone who has a lot of experience in the implementation of Electronic Medical Records and knows the ins and outs of the system. It can also be helpful for the practice if they ask for references and ask them if they had a satisfactory time with the consultant.
Care practices need to take this as a project. Like any other important project, it is essential to have a time line. It is even more significant to strictly follow this timeline and work on things according to the deadlines.
A Personalized Approach to Medication Nonadherence
At the Abarca Forward conference earlier this year, George Van Antwerp, managing director at Deloitte, discussed how social determinants of health and a personalized member experience can improve medication adherence and health outcomes.
When you have a reliable consultant working with you, it is now time to test how good that consultant is by working under the budget that you mutually made. The most important investment in this regard for practices is acquiring the hardware that fully supports the software provided by the vendor. Vendors sometime offer the minimum hardware and then charge to get it upgraded which adds a lot of money to the costs. Hence, the priority for the practice should be to run the software provided by vendors as efficiently as possible.
Finally, with the help of the consultant, providers should start implementing Electronic Medical Records step by step. With some help from the vendor, and dedication from staff members, this should be a piece of cake.
