The times we live in demand a lot of speed and efficiency from any service that we pay for, and that includes medical care services. There are many complications involved in the medical care business and no matter what size your practice is, it will always benefit from a more efficient system of data and time management. Plus, when it comes to billing, who wouldn’t like to have minimal errors and the lowest possible processing time per bill or per individual. This is when you know you need to change your old ways of doing thing and bring something new and more sophisticated to make your job a lot easier and more effective.

That is where EMR (Electronic Medical Records) software comes in. You will at how much EMR software can do and it takes so little time to do everything. Be it entering relevant data, recalling appointment schedules or queue management, a good EMR software is exactly what you have been waiting for to give your business a boost. You will love the amount of efficiency it will bring in to the entire system. You will be doing everything faster, with fewer errors and with a much lower processing time.

For instance, when it comes to queue management and alerting the staff at hand, you can do it instantly with EMR software. This is handled by the internal communications system with which, for example, you can alert your nurse that a patient is ready for his appointment. This saves a lot of time in communications

and speeds up the entire process. Bill generation is another area that will amaze you with its capabilities. You can generate bills that contains everything, from the medical treatment details to the different sets of insurance codes that will help you patients claim there medical insurance.

As you might know, errors in the bills, especially in the codes often stop patients from successfully claiming insurance for treatments availed. While it is quite human to make errors, especially with so many codes to handle, you must also realize that each such mistake hurts your business because it leaves your customer dissatisfied with your service. The EMR software will make sure that the correct code is implemented and printed each time on the bill. So you have a complete bill that does everything for you.

It also has complete tracking and analytical features whereby you can recall your performance from previous working days, weeks, months and even years. You can instantly call up charts and graphs to look at the demographics of your patients. You can look at your accounts, your total revenue and much more. With the data at hand, you can spot trends and spot the performance of each wing, division and department. Through this improved performance tracking you can truly enhance your practice to fine tune to your unique needs. So you absolutely must try EMR software to see how much it can help you

Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/computer-forensics-articles/use-emr-software-to-enhance-your-practice-992322.html

Bernie Monegain, Editor

CHICAGO – The American Medical Association has adopted new guiding principles for physicians in the event a patient’s electronic medical record is breached. AMA members approved the guidelines at the group’s annual policy-making meeting earlier this week in Chicago.

“Protecting the privacy and safety of patient information, whether in a paper record or an electronic medical record, is a top priority for physicians,” said AMA board member William A. Dolan, MD. “Physicians need a standard protocol to follow to maintain patient security in the event of a breach of personal information.”

Medical information housed in an EMR travels from patient to healthcare provider to health insurance industry with limited regulation and oversight, Dolan noted. Security breaches can happen and physicians need guidance about their responsibilities if health information has been compromised.

The new AMA guidelines ask physicians to:

• Ensure patients are properly informed of the breach,
• Follow ethically appropriate procedures for disclosure,
• Support responses to security breaches that place the interests of patients above those of physician, medical practice or institution, and
• To the extent possible, provide information to patients to enable them to diminish potential adverse consequences of the breach of personal health information.

“EMRs are the wave of the future, so it is important for both patients and physicians to feel secure” Dolan said. “These new guidelines prepare physicians to help patients in the unfortunate situation of an information breach.”

Above article published on

http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/ama-weighs-emr-security-breaches

Medical offices require a lot of efficiency to ensure that all patients are properly taken care of. Every such facility is a busy area where employing multiple people to do one job is a waste of time, money and resources. It will eat away at the revenues of small businesses and will increase running costs. This is particularly true when it comes to maintaining medical records. It is a data intensive job that needs a lot of accuracy and time to do by hand. Sometimes, errors are introduced into the data due to human negligence, which is inevitable.

This is why you should use EMR software that takes care of data handling and free up the time of your employees so that they can work more efficiently. By freeing your employees of records maintenance tasks, you can greatly boost the amount of work that gets done. It will also help you provide a better medical service to your clients and hence increases the amount of business that you are getting. Your clients will greatly appreciate getting improved medical care and your reputation will be better recognized.

Using EMR software makes a lot of business sense because you will be saving money in the long run. When you automate certain processes, you will be saving a lot of money due to lower operation and maintenance costs. Your record keeping will be much more streamlined and thus client information processing and recalling will only take a fraction of the time.

The efficient billing software also keeps track of all the due and overdue payments. It will automatically remind your patients about their dues with you. You can send invoices just like you did before, but with much more efficiency and ease.

A good EMR software will lead to efficient management on your part. Everyone has access to updated data and treatment plans. In addition, not having to manage and manipulate data manually usually means that your staff will be happier and more motivated - thus ensuring a lower staff turnover, which is important for any successful medical practice.

In the beginning, it takes a little time to get used to the system. However, professional grade software often comes with adequate support. Within a short period of time, you and your staff would have gotten used to operating the new software. With EMR software, your record keeping becomes so much more efficient and organized that you will start wondering why you did not start using it sooner.

You may also market your facility as environmentally friendly by using these software. You can legitimately do that because you will be using less paper or no paper at all. This will help you reduce your carbon footprint greatly and introduce a much more efficient record keeping system without damaging the environment. People have become more environmentally conscious in recent times and this will ensure a greater amount of client recognition and respect.

Thus, by choosing to streamline and organize your entire record keeping and billing process, you will not only be helping your business but also your customers and the environment

Above article published on

http://www.articlesbase.com/branding-articles/emr-electronic-medical-records-software-for-greater-medical-office-efficiency-949149.html

Electronic medical record (EMR) software is the wave of the future for healthcare providers. Patient medical records can be extensive and complex, containing patient demographic and contact information, a summary of medical history, and documentation of each event, including symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, and outcome. Relevant documents and correspondence are also included. With EMR software, it is possible to store the entire medical record, or any part of it, on a computer. The advantage that EMR software has over traditional paper systems is that they provide greater data availability, transfer, and retrieval. This article will first look at the important components of EMR systems in general, and then it will look at three vendors who not only contain these components, but provide orthopedic practice-specific functionality as well.

The following are important components when considering EMR systems:

• Functionality
  Often, lower-priced EMRs have limited functionality. However, you don’t want to pay for functionality you are not going to use.
• Data structure and organization
  How easy is it to retrieve the information you need? Is there a summary page that is easy to get to and that provides the information you need?
• Record management
  Does the system allow you to create useful reports? Can you scan numerous paper documents into the patient’s chart? If so, how easy is it to review these documents?
• Database integrity
  Are there mechanisms in place to maintain database integrity?
• Data export to other systems
  Does the system use a standardized transfer protocol such as HL7?
• HIPAA compliance
  To be HIPAA compliant, there must be a log of anyone who has viewed or modified the chart, and any modifications of the medical record must be traced. Also, each note, lab report, and scanned document entered into the record must be signed by a physician.
• Communication
  Does the system allow you to fax, mail, or email a recently completed not to other physicians? Is there a way to make hard copies of the chart, and can the software communicate with other offices?

OmniMD offers an EMR solution that addresses the vast information needs of the orthopedics specialty. The orthopedic specific EMR includes clinically-defined templates for common orthopedic complaints, history of present illness, and review of systems. The system also includes orthopedics specific ICD and CPT Codes that are used to capture accurate charges and quickly generate electronic bills. To meet the needs of the orthopedic practice, OmniMD offers the following point-and-click orthopedic-specific templates and forms:

• Fracture Visit
• Initial Adult Ortho Visit
• Orthopedic X-Ray/Plan
• Orthopedic SOAP Note
• Podiatry Visit
• Spine Exam
• Accidental Injury Form
• CMG Extremity Measurements
• Neck & Back History
• Neck & Back A/P
• Neck & Back Physical Exam

As medical specialties and sub-specialties become more complex and the medical field becomes more and more dependent on computers, the pressure on medical practices to keep up with technology will become overwhelming. EMRs are here to stay, and their return on investment is undeniable. EMRs are the wave of the future, and with so many options to choose from, every practitioner should be able to find the system that meets every need.

Above article published on

http://www.medcompare.com/spotlight.asp?spotlightid=121

To help transform health care, the state should invest more in electronic infrastructure that supports the automated exchange of electronic medical information, writes Russell Sarbora of Community Health Network of Washington. Increased efficiencies, lower costs and less waste of resources will help improve the health-care system.

By Russell Sarbora Special to The Times

IN Washington, state spending on health care ranks second only to education. The state has consistently asked how we can improve efficiency, reduce costs and focus scarce resources on insuring and caring for more Washingtonians.

The rapid exchange of accurate and timely information is going to transform the delivery of medical care. Infrastructure that supports the automated exchange of electronic medical information is and will continue to be a primary driver for efficient health-care delivery. We need to encourage and realize an efficient infrastructure for interoperability between electronic medical-record systems.

Washington state has at least two key assets already in place that have the potential to support creation of this infrastructure. These are the Washington State Health Care Authority-sponsored Health Information Infrastructure Advisory Board (HIIAB), and the Community Health Network of Washington (CHNW), the nation’s largest system of community health centers.

The 19 community health centers that make up the network are the primary health-care home for more than 600,000 low-income people in Washington state, including one-third of the state’s uninsured adults and one-half of the state’s uninsured children.

At CHNW we are working with HIIAB to achieve its objectives and have already implemented electronic medical-record systems that cover more than 70 percent of our member clinics and more than 85 percent of our patient population.

Business pressures will eventually produce efficient health-data-exchange services for patients served by commercial insurers and providers who rely primarily on commercially insured patients. But who will ensure that similar services are provided to vulnerable populations?

Through continued support for the HIIAB and by strengthening efforts to encourage the interoperability of electronic medical records, Washington state can improve patient health and safety while simultaneously controlling state-funded health-care costs.

Electronic medical records are used in the vast majority of acute-care facilities in Washington state; by all laboratory-service organizations operating in the state; by almost 25 percent of Washington’s primary-care physicians, and by more than 70 percent of CHNW’s member physicians. Yet, there is no statewide or national infrastructure today that supports sharing this information.

This infrastructure needs to be created, and the states that do so will lead the nation in delivery of efficient health care during the next decade. Washington state can and should be a leader in realizing this goal.

To achieve this leadership position, our state must adopt existing data-exchange policies and standards for health-information exchanges between organizations receiving state funding, provide incentives for technology investments required to support health-information exchanges, and financially support pilot programs that enable health-information exchanges.

CHNW is already working with HIIAB to create a Health Record Banking system that supports sharing of health information between patients and their health-care providers. We need to upgrade this existing business process to use current generation technology and thereby overcome existing shortcomings in reliability, efficiency and accuracy.

Interoperability between electronic medical-record systems is the key to achieving widespread sharing of clinical data. Today, these proprietary systems are incented to constrict access to the data they contain and there are numerous unresolved issues regarding access to the data and under what conditions data are shared.

Fortunately, the HIIAB is well-versed in these issues and well-positioned to support their resolution. The HIIAB is already proceeding with the creation of mechanisms to support patient access and control of their health data. However, the single greatest shortfall in the proposed Health Record Bank system is the absence of mechanisms to automatically include physician-created health data in these patient-controlled record systems. Lacking this critical body of data, the value of Health Record Banks will be substantially diminished.

We need to extend the HIIAB charter and role to encourage interoperability between electronic medical-record systems employed in Washington State and to achieve automated exchange of clinical data. The technology to do so already exists. Policy and will are the only hurdles to be overcome.

Russell Sarbora is the chief information officer for Community Health Network of Washington.

Copyright © 2009 The Seattle Times Company

Above article published on http://seattletimes.nwsource.com

President Obama is counting on electronic health records to help modernize the nation’s dysfunctional health care system, improve the quality of care and reduce its cost. His stimulus package will provide $19 billion over the next two years to promote the adoption and use of health information technology, and he has pledged to spend some $50 billion in all over five years.

There is a long way to go. A new study reveals that American hospitals have been appallingly slow to adopt electronic records, just as previous studies have shown that American physicians have been very slow to computerize their operations. By contrast, a vast majority of doctors in four other industrialized nations have adopted electronic records, although hospitals are thought to be lagging.

The study was published in The New England Journal of Medicine and led by Harvard researchers, including Dr. David Blumenthal, who has been chosen by Mr. Obama to be national coordinator of health information technology.

The researchers surveyed some 3,000 acute-care hospitals last year. Only 1.5 percent had a comprehensive electronic-records system in all major clinical units that performed all 24 functions deemed important by a panel of experts. Such systems incorporated physicians’ and nurses’ notes, the ability to order laboratory and radiological tests, clinical guidelines on how to treat various conditions and alerts to avoid dangerous drug interactions, among other capabilities. Only 11 percent of the hospitals had even a basic system in at least one major clinical unit that performed eight functions.

The main impediment is money. Many hospitals simply do not have the capital to buy systems that can cost $20 million to $200 million, especially when so many are struggling to remain solvent. Hospitals also worry about high maintenance costs, an uncertain payoff on their investment, a lack of staff with adequate technical expertise and resistance from doctors.

The president’s stimulus plan should help ease the financial obstacles. It will provide $17 billion in financial incentives (higher payments through Medicare or Medicaid) to get hospitals and doctors to adopt electronic health records and will impose financial penalties on those that do not. Another $2 billion will help hospitals and doctors keep their systems working and up-to-date.

The ultimate goal is an “interoperable” system that would allow easy exchange of clinical data between hospitals and doctors. The modernization effort will have limited value if a mélange of different computer systems can’t talk to one another.

Above article published on www.nytimes.com