After the passing of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 President Obama allocated $19 billion in incentive funds for healthcare IT to adopt Electronic Medical Records (EMR) by 2015.
Financial incentives have been put aside as reimbursement funds for those who adopt an EMR system and progresses from paper based records to electronic medical records. Many healthcare providers and their IT teams are still figuring out the best way to go ahead with the move of transforming the paper based records into electronic based system and managing the process.

EMR Adoption

There are financial incentives to installing an EMR system furthermore there are also financial penalties for non compliance in the form Medicare reimbursements being deducted anywhere from 1% in 2015 to 5% by 2019.

There has been a great discussion regarding the movement of paper based records to electronic medical records but in real providers are faced with the complex situation of dealing with both paper and electronic based records and not a significant amount have been able to complete the transition to EMR.

Promise of EMR

It has been generally agreed that usage of Electronic Medical Records have an increased benefits for patients such as increased safety, reduction in medical errors and better coordination of health services.
Doctors can access the latest patient information, ability to retrieve past medical records electronically and can get a quick snapshot of patient’s medical history for more accurate diagnoses. EMR help eliminate paperwork, increase efficiency and allow the staff to spend more time with patients while accelerating the billing process.

Interoperability 

InteroperableEMR systems can facilitate the coordination of healthcare delivery. Furthermore EMR data can be used anonymously for generating statistical reports related to quality improvement, public health disease surveillance and resource management.

As an outcome of safety features, cost savings benefits combined with government mandates, hospitals, doctors’ offices and health centers all over the US are moving ahead with adoption of EMR systems.

Post Implementation

After you have made up your mind to implement an EMR system the next major step is to figuring out the workflows and processes in the practice to enable the system to meet its potential and maximize its adoption. EMR system needs to be occupied with data. Part of the new data is entered electronically by the practice staff and physician. While the rest of the date is generated in paper format and requires conversion. After the go live date practices need to operate in such an environment that allows simultaneous running of both paper and electronic based records. The physician needs to manage the patient information no matter which form it is. 

EMR transition is not a Do it yourself Project

The transformation from paper to electronic records sounds easy and fairly straightforward. However in reality there are many challenges facing healthcare providers. Existing paper records are full of inconsistency and redundancy. So for a smooth strategy it is recommended to partner with trusted experts with a significant healthcare experience.