One of the ophthalmology practices which implemented an EHR Software few months ago reported increased productivity in their office workflow. The EHR enabled the practice to work more efficiently.
The practice considered using EHR system a decade ago but it didn’t considered it seriously until passing of the HITECH (Health Information Technology for Economic Clinical Health) Act which makes it mandatory for the physicians to use an EHR system.
As a health IT consultant and the friend of the physician who runs the practice. We began looking for EHR companies that can be the best fit for our practice. We met  an EHR specialist from our vendor. The vendor staff took time to work out what are our needs as an ophthalmologist. This vendor provided as some generic templates but later on the specialists guided our software implementation and helped us customize the software to our practice needs. The specialists helped us create templates with particular dropdown menus that allow us to manage our workflow in a more organized manner.

Customizing the EHR
We purchased our specialty specific EHR software a year ago in 2012 and started to upgrade our practice by placing new computers and monitors.
During the whole year I with my physician friend and his colleagues went through the database of templates, section by section. The EHR specialists together with physicians, front desk staff and technicians spend hundreds of hours in customizing the software to the needs of the practice. We introduced drop down menus for different disorders like corneal, external eye, retinal diseases etc. we also added drawing capability and diagnostic codes that are specific to our practice. The final product is a year worth of effort between physicians, front desk staff and technicians.
My friend has been running this practice for over 20 years, and having around 16,000 active patients. After the implementation the EHR system slowed down our practice and workflow and it made the patients dissatisfied. But after giving a detailed explanation to the patients regarding the delays; many of them understood and accepted the prolonged delays.

Benefits of EHR system
Physicians in this practice use tablets and iPads to access the patient information. EHR system keeps our patients happy and satisfied. We can simply update the medical information regarding the patients in real time on patient portals EHR offer several features. One of the features includes dictating letters to referring physicians. The physicians use this feature to dictate a letter and for each patient and it takes 4 to 5 minutes per patient.
 
 Conclusion
Adopting an EHR system completely transforms the practice into paperless office. Using the EHR system has increased the productivity of the practice and allows everyone to operate the practice at a more efficient level than before.