As you set up the parameters and templates for your Electronic Health Records, it is wise to keep in mind that the initial work will be labor intensive. You will want to take the time and approach this work with a thoughtful attitude and realize that the work you do at this time should mean smooth sailing in the future.
Prior to creating your practice templates or pull down menus, you would be wise to carefully examine at least ten to fifteen initial examination reports and the same number of follow up reports, so that you have can be assured that you follow the same pattern that your physician does when he verbally dictates his reports.
Some EHR systems, especially those that are free or offered at bargain rates will not have the ability to build in a letterhead feature, so you if you have the option to create new templates, this should be your first order of business. You can do each line of your address, phone and fax as a separate listing, so that you can select ALL for an initial evaluation and select only the physician name and title for follow up exams that may not be mailed to other physicians.
Most dictated letters follow a pattern of : History or Chief Complaint / Review of Systems/ Physical Exam / Impression/ Treatment and finally Plan. If you would like to follow this procedure in a point and click system, you will need to create a template that shows these highlighted areas and then fill in the appropriate text as follows. An easy way to customize your templates is to initially choose five to ten of your most common phrases under each one of these headings. You can then click the heading and find exactly what you are looking for under each topic of your exam.
Many EHR systems come pre-loaded with the specialty procedure codes that your office most frequently uses. If this works for you, it may be less work-intensive than building your templates on your own. However, there are benefits to starting at square one, since most practices usually have a uniformity to their physician consults and follow ups and you may find that you are somewhat confused if there are overloads of information that you do not generally use on a day to day basis.
Systems will also offer you the opportunity to transfer your entire patient base into the new EHR system. In many cases, this may not be the best choice. When you do automatic transfer, your data may end up skewed, or some patients may appear more than once. Insurance information may not transfer seamlessly and you will end up doing more work than it takes to manually enter your patients one by one. Pick a start date for the use of your EHR that will give you time to input patients with appointments 30-60 days in the future. You can scan in the insurance cards that should be on file in your charts or add the insurance manually for each patient. This not only assures that data is transferred correctly, but it also gives you the opportunity to cull old charts that are sitting in your file room, and to re-verify the insurance of any patient that has not been seen in your office for 90 days or longer.
As you are culling your charts, you may also want to send reminders to patients that are past due for a visit or procedure and new patients scheduled for 30-60 days in the future can receive their registration forms in the mail, which always makes check in an easier process.
The process of entering your patients into your EHR system will also help you organize old charts for storage or to arrange shredding of PHI for patients not seen for seven years or longer. You may want to consider this process as part of an overall practice audit and the chance to determine how organized your front office staff has been in obtaining and filing needed PHI information.
Make sure that you seek hardware recommendations from the company supplying your EHR software. Some tablets are not compatible with every EHR system, so choose wisely. Make sure that the software vendor is prepared to assist you in synching your tablets or PC's to the printers and faxes in your office.
Prior to creating your practice templates or pull down menus, you would be wise to carefully examine at least ten to fifteen initial examination reports and the same number of follow up reports, so that you have can be assured that you follow the same pattern that your physician does when he verbally dictates his reports.
Some EHR systems, especially those that are free or offered at bargain rates will not have the ability to build in a letterhead feature, so you if you have the option to create new templates, this should be your first order of business. You can do each line of your address, phone and fax as a separate listing, so that you can select ALL for an initial evaluation and select only the physician name and title for follow up exams that may not be mailed to other physicians.
Most dictated letters follow a pattern of : History or Chief Complaint / Review of Systems/ Physical Exam / Impression/ Treatment and finally Plan. If you would like to follow this procedure in a point and click system, you will need to create a template that shows these highlighted areas and then fill in the appropriate text as follows. An easy way to customize your templates is to initially choose five to ten of your most common phrases under each one of these headings. You can then click the heading and find exactly what you are looking for under each topic of your exam.
Many EHR systems come pre-loaded with the specialty procedure codes that your office most frequently uses. If this works for you, it may be less work-intensive than building your templates on your own. However, there are benefits to starting at square one, since most practices usually have a uniformity to their physician consults and follow ups and you may find that you are somewhat confused if there are overloads of information that you do not generally use on a day to day basis.
Systems will also offer you the opportunity to transfer your entire patient base into the new EHR system. In many cases, this may not be the best choice. When you do automatic transfer, your data may end up skewed, or some patients may appear more than once. Insurance information may not transfer seamlessly and you will end up doing more work than it takes to manually enter your patients one by one. Pick a start date for the use of your EHR that will give you time to input patients with appointments 30-60 days in the future. You can scan in the insurance cards that should be on file in your charts or add the insurance manually for each patient. This not only assures that data is transferred correctly, but it also gives you the opportunity to cull old charts that are sitting in your file room, and to re-verify the insurance of any patient that has not been seen in your office for 90 days or longer.
As you are culling your charts, you may also want to send reminders to patients that are past due for a visit or procedure and new patients scheduled for 30-60 days in the future can receive their registration forms in the mail, which always makes check in an easier process.
The process of entering your patients into your EHR system will also help you organize old charts for storage or to arrange shredding of PHI for patients not seen for seven years or longer. You may want to consider this process as part of an overall practice audit and the chance to determine how organized your front office staff has been in obtaining and filing needed PHI information.
Make sure that you seek hardware recommendations from the company supplying your EHR software. Some tablets are not compatible with every EHR system, so choose wisely. Make sure that the software vendor is prepared to assist you in synching your tablets or PC's to the printers and faxes in your office.
No comments:
Post a Comment