“Change happens when the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change.”― Tony Robbins
A 2013 RAND study identified 9 reasons that “physicians hate EHRs”
It’s no secret that EHR has become a dirty term among many providers. Systems can be expensive, difficult to use and seen as more of a necessary evil than a tool to serve patients.
Many practices jumped in with their Practice Management system’s EHR without really considering alternatives. And many practices made very expensive long-term investments in their EHR. Add in the reality is that once fully implemented, EHR is ingrained in the practice, for better or worse, extricating oneself can be one heck of a divorce.
So what is a practice to do?
This week we’ll cover your current situation. Next week we’ll move on to next steps.
#1 Analyze Your Current Situation
Ask yourself and your team the following questions:
- Are we 100% paperless/fully implemented?
- What is the TOTAL monthly cost of our EHR per provider? Don’t forget to include all annual costs (divide by 12), server maintenance and all related costs.
- When is the contract up?
- If Client Server, when is the next major server(s) upgrade planned?
- What are the top 3 issues you/your staff are having with the EHR?
- On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being excellent), how much is your EMR helping with patient care? Why?