Some of worst horror stories in healthcare operations right now have to do with the failure of Electronic Health Record, (or EHR) installations. The high rate of EHR failures is being compounded by the pressure to attest in 2011 and start recouping some money against the EHR purchase and implementation.
To help organizations adopt EHRs smoothly and successfully, billing and management specialist Kris Jones, owner of Healthcare Management Services, is providing her clients with an innovative EHR program that she calls “Crawl. Walk. Run. Fly.” Kris told me “I found my clients so resistant to EHR, so paralyzed by the horror stories of money spent and productivity lost that I couldn’t help them move forward like we both knew they should.”
So Kris created the program that she thinks of as “Baby Steps” to make the process much more manageable and less intimidating. She brings the practice team on board a step at a time, removing the fear of the unknown and the greatest fear of all – change! Because Kris supplies the practice management software as well as the EMR, it is feasible for for her to let the practice take as much time as it needs to move through each stage.
Step 1. Crawl
The practice uses the EHR as a repository for medical record images. Staff makes first contact with the software.
Step 2. Walk
The practice adds e-prescribing and the staff enters data into the EHR for the problem list, the medication list and vitals. The software begins a functional role in patient interactions.
Step 3. Run
The physicians start with partial, then move to a full progress note. Physicians make first contact with the software.
Step 4. Fly
The practice achieves Meaningful Use with full implementation of the EHR.
What Kris has developed for her clients is the antithesis of the experience most practices have with the purchase of an EHR. It gives her clients the continual support and incremental change they need to preserve their workflow while slowly integrating the new software. This “slow and steady” approach has allowed her clients to be able to get their feet wet in the Electronic Health Record before being assured that the water’s fine and taking a full dip.
Click here to see the special free offer Kris and her team have put together for Manage My Practice readers.
Kris Jones-Bartley founded Healthcare Management Systems in 1985. Over the last 25 years, Kris built HCMS in to a multi-faceted practice management company with clients nationwide. Kris has personally managed every phase of a medical practice, from start-up to retirement, and including the recovery of practices “on the brink” of insolvency. Critical thinking, candor and eye-for-detail, make Kris a valuable partner in the business of medicine. HCMS is focused on specialty Revenue Cycle Management deployed in conjunction with E.H.R. capability.
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