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Are You Evaluating EHRs the Best Way?

Why are you interested in adopting EHR?  What scares you about adopting EHR?  Are you prepared to evaluate EHR products and vendors on this basis?

Most surveys cite reasons such as the following for adopting EHR:

  • Ability to access charts anytime and/or from multiple locations
  • Chart accuracy
  • Improved coding levels
  • Ablity to extract meaningful data for follow-up care
  • Improved office workflow
  • Reduced costs – transcription, physical records, etc.

And most surveys about EHR adoption point to the following reasons why EHRs have not been adopted (as cited by providers):

  • EHR might be difficult to learn or use
  • EHR may slow productivity
  • Time to transition to EHR
  • Cost of EHR system
  • System may be difficult to customize to my workflow
  • Inability to share data/information between systems

What are your reasons?  What are your fears?

All too often vendor demonstration “grading” and reviews focus on isolated functionality.  While specific functionality may be very important to your practice, it won’t mean a thing if the EHR does not meet your budget or your broader needs.

Focus your criteria first on why you want to implement EHR – how well does the system meet these needs?  Then focus on your concerns – how well does it address them?  And then lastly on your specific functionality needs,

C Huddle, VP, Market Development