Evaluating Your Current EHR – To Scrap or Continue?
It is not uncommon if you have collected your incentive money for your Stage 1 attestation and are now evaluating your EHR and wondering if it will have the capability to help you attest for Stage 2. Many practices are evaluating and trying to decide if they want to stay in the current relationship they have with their EHR vendor. Or do they scrap the old and find a new one.
There are several things to consider if you are going to scrap your old EHR and start over. The first is did the EHR help you reach the MU criteria, and was it user friendly to where you and your staff can continue to utilize the software to its full potential? If you have answered yes to that question then you will not have to start the process all over again. With a new system comes the research, the quotes, the demos, and the negotiations. That’s just the start of your research. It doesn’t include the hardware or software upgrades that might be needed. You will also need to consider the amount of training that will need to be conducted to bring the staff up to speed to help them become as efficient as they can.
However, even with all those considerations, it might be worth scraping and starting with a new or different system. If your practice numbers fell off and you did not gain back more than a few of the daily patient load you lost, you would be much better off with a system that worked for you and not you for the system. Consultants with experience in Practice Management and EHRs could help you and your staff by bringing experience in that would benefit your practice. Concultants can help with getting the most from your EHR and could increase you revenue with a very simple evaluation.
The Practice Management Consultants at Medical Management Services can make an un-biased recommendation for an EHR/PM software as they are not attached to any one vendor giving them the flexibility to make the recommendation for the best software for your practice. We are also knowledgeable enough to make recommendations on your existing training program and EHR and can provide you with a solution on the best practice to move forward.