Beginning the Transition to Electronic Health Records
Once you come to the conclusion that electronic health records can improve your practice, as well as patient care, you’ll be anxious to move forward.
While this is a step you want to take as soon as possible, the transition is easier said than done. If you want to achieve success, if you want to move forward without delay, you need to follow these five steps:
- Assess your practice. What are the goals of your practice? Are you ready to implement EHR software from a technical perspective? Once you get a high level overview of your level of preparedness, it’s easier to design a plan for moving forward.
- Select a provider. No two EHR solutions are identical, so you want to select the one that is best for your practice. Make your decision based on features, reliability, reputation, and of course, price.
- Be ready for some serious training. Everyone in the practice must be on board with the idea of using electronic health records. This is why the training process is so important. Without this, it’s easy for staff members to revert to the “old way” of doing things.
- Use it. It’s one thing to implement an EHR solution, but another thing entirely to achieve meaningful use. How are you using the system to benefit your practice and its patients?
- Always be improving. You should never be happy with where you stand, as there is a good chance that you can get even more out of your EHR system in the future. Consider the changes you can make today to fully leverage your solution down the line.
When you follow these five steps, you will find yourself in position to streamline the transition to electronic health records.