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Keys to EMR Success: Selecting and Implementing an Electronic Medical Record

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A recent report, published online in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that doctors who use electronic medical or health records (EMR or EHR) say overwhelmingly that such records have helped improve the quality and timeliness of care. Yet fewer than one in five of the nation's doctors has started using such records. Most doctors in private practice, especially those in small practices, lack the financial incentive to invest in computerized records. In fact, only 8.6 percent of small practices (1-3 doctors) have started using EHR, as compared to 50 percent of large practices (more than 50 doctors).

The key reason for slow EHR adoption rates seem to be economic: providers, already squeezed for reimbursement by the payers, lack the financial incentive to make a significant - often as high as $20,000 per doctor - investment in EHR, and undergo the painful and costly conversion process from paper. Experts agree that EHR would be adopted faster in a consumer-driven health care system, where innovation benefits the entrepreneurial provider. In the absence of a consumer-driven health care market, the government, i.e., the taxpayers, subsidize technological progress, shifting the system selection and pricing decision-making from health care providers to bureaucrats.

That decision-making today is not easy: 54 percent of doctors without EHR said that not finding an electronic health record that met their needs was a "major barrier" to adoption. Why doctors cannot find products that meet their needs in a market saturated with 400 EMR vendors? Is it because these products tend to be designed for hospitals -- big customers -- instead of small practices?

A recent article in New York Times ("Most Doctors Aren't Using Electronic Health Records") concludes with this citation: "Do I see more patients because of this technology? Probably no," Dr. Masucci said. "But I am doing a better job with the patients I am seeing. It almost forces you to be a better doctor." In a consumer-driven market, fewer patients would visit a practice that could not find an EMR that met its needs in terms of functionality, conversion process, and pricing. The market would guide the EMR vendors and the process of EMR adoption would be easier.

Hence the importance and timeliness of this outstanding guide to navigate the complex and expensive EMR markets. This book is a superb GPS for selecting the right product and integrating it in your practice from your front desk, all the way to billing and revenue cycle management. Read it and refer to it often for reference.

Yuval Lirov, Medical Billing Networks and Processes - Profitable and Compliant Revenue Cycle Management in the Internet Age