Electronic med records challenges

I manage a doctors office, that's my work description. Not just any doctor, but a General Surgeon. I have done this now for about 15 years. Over the years I have experienced lot of challenges and hindrances to my profession. Needless to say anyone who has managed an office knows the hassles of hiring and firing. Medical Assistants and Nurses are not easy to find or keep. They are highly erratic in their punctuality for one thing. To keep them showing up on time has been no small task for me. Even now that is the most challenging part of my job, to keep track of employees. But that is not what I wanted to write about.

My latest woes are surrounded around the Electronic Medical Records program initiated and implemented by the present gov. It is supposed to keep up with the changing times and demands of the modern day progress. Like anything when it is initiated it is very difficult to keep pace with it. It is not even the difficulty of learning it as much as getting the help to learn the ins and outs of it. The program I chose to use for this practice was based on ease of use and of course cost. When talking to its marketing specialist and tech specialist I got the impression that this program was really going to be cost effective and help us in the long run. Looks like long run is good word to use because the short term results presently are not too exciting. Please don't get me wrong, its not like we are not able to use the system. According to the company officials we are more than meeting up with our required usage and skill levels. It none of that, but its just there is new stuff everyday and the cost that we seemed to have spent on it is not justified to its performance.

Firstly, the emr systems are not that new, supposedly people have been using some form of EMR for at least ten plus years, its just new to us as it is to the building full of doctors offices that populate this building.

Secondly, as the emr programmes are new so are the trainig and installation professionals.

Thirdly, the help desk has to figure it out themselves what the solution is before they can begin giving us the tutorials.



The list can go on and on, but my suggestion to anyone attempting to go for EMR product are that be fully educated about the product before you commit to all hassles and dont fall for the sales pitch, instead try to get in and use the product at some facility where you can go and learn for couple of hours.

thanks and good luck

Minative.