We’ve all heard our physicians complain about the amount of time and effort it takes to chart in Electronic Medical Records (EMRs), yet the value of this information is priceless for the care of patients. Here are a few tips to make your EMR a friend rather than a foe and boost physician productivity.
Use Patient Portals
Patient portals allow your patients to obtain their own medical information. You can educate patients while they are engaged with you as to what your portal can do to save them time. This will in turn save you time.
Get to Know Your Templates and Shortcuts
Do you ever feel like you are doing the same work over and over? Take advantage of the tools that are already built into the software before creating more work for yourself.
Use Your Team
Share some of the work by delegating initial lab reviews. Assign medical assistants to review electronic lab results and point out the important information. Ask to be notified of information that needs attention. Use the email flag function to bring these types of results to your attention.
Have Detailed Training
Get in touch with your EMR vendor to request detailed training. It's beneficial for everyone in your practice to learn best practices from the experts of the software.
Nominate an EMR Champion
Consider nominating someone at your office to be your EMR Champion. This individual can help others learn how to save time by sharing their knowledge with the rest of the team.
Instill EMR Positivity
Try and stress to your team that EMR documentation is not a problem. When you take the time to get the most out of the tool, you’ll save time in the end. Don’t be an EMR hater!
Hire a Scribe
This will allow your physicians to spend much needed quality time with your patients and increase productivity for the entire practice.
While EMRs get a bad rap for creating extra, unnecessary work, they are essential for providing the highest quality care. They collect and deliver crucial information so physicians know exactly what their patients have gone through when they come in for an appointment. If set up correctly with proper research and training, EMRs can actually reduce the amount of time physicians spend with documentation and increase the number of patients they are able to see each day.
