Bill Atkins, Exec. Vice President Health Management Consultants, LLC. Columbia, Maryland Electronic Medical Records Some Things to Think About

A Few Critical Questions Practice readiness –Is your practice ready to change? The most critical factor in successful EMR implementation is the people –What are your staff’s technology skills? –What are the impacts on your work flow? –What is the resistance to change? –What are the expectations of your patients?

What are your objectives? –Critical for comparative analysis of EMR products and vendors –System features and functionality Medication management and RX writing Document management (imaging) Customization and adaptability E&M coding support, CPT and ICD-9 (ROI) Support for the DOQ-IT initiative Medical equipment interfaces Requirements Analysis

Template building –Can you create and edit templates or must this be done by the vendor? ($$) Messaging and routing of information Remote access capability Federal regulations and national standards –Will the software become out of date or does the vendor have a compliance strategy? What is the vendor’s level of participation in standards organizations? Requirements Analysis

Ease of use / intuitive design Work flow management Preventive medicine Interface for your PMS Link with labs (Quest, LabCorp, etc.) Product update policy Software support and training

Your EMR will be Mission Critical Available 24/365 unlike PMS –Imagine a life threatening situation without access to your clinical information. –Imagine your waiting room full of “impatients”, your server is down and technical support is 2 hours away.

Your EMR will be Mission Critical Mission Critical Requires –Business quality hardware - RAID-5 server(s), etc. –Guaranteed and frequent backups and offsite storage –Uninterruptible power supply

What to Look for in an EMR Vendor What are the resources and support practices of the vendor? Do you get an answering machine or a real person? What is their availability? (Hours of Support) Do they provide onsite training and support? Do they provide project management to ensure success? Is it an established company?

For More Information or a Free Consultation John Stoever, Sales Manager Health Management Consultants, LLC. Columbia, Maryland