The One-Two Punch of Ill-Considered EHR Decisions

Many articles published lately like “Dissatisfaction” leading to EHR replacement trend, discuss the chronic unhappiness and dissatisfaction of Electronic Health Record users. Weeping and gnashing of teeth over electronic record systems is pervasive, and the sources of pain are common and recurrent. 

Still, most every EHR issue that appears or re-appears can be boiled down to one of two root sources. Systems are unusable because of either absence of realistically usable clinical support, or lack of real-time billing functionality. Or both.

Key points from this article include:

·       Practice management has grown as a focus for systems. Whereas in the more distant past, documentation-even CPOE have held sway, the nitty-gritty of running the operation is now the number one priority for systems.

·       The number clinicians replacing their EHRs in any one year has increased 59 percent since 2014

·       Billing functionality is a strong need for EHR buyers. It is the top-requested functionality (45 percent) ahead of claims support (27 percent) and patient scheduling (23 percent).

·       Practice management includes, not surprisingly, management of a facility’s patient population.  Hence, 28 percent of buyers are looking for patient tracking capabilities: monitoring assessments, treatment plans, progress notes, etc.



A parallel and significant problem arises when a facility decides to replace their EHR: the replacement becomes a new bombshell that can bankrupt the facility doing the change.  Buyer’s “remorse” from Electronic Health Records replacement ranks up with car purchases and marriage. Well, maybe not marriage. But in all cases, an unfortunate and costly initial mistake is often compounded by a second mistake.

The key question to ask is whether the EHR can support both the provider and the business side of the practice. Either alone won’t work, and the absence of any one key part creates a vicious cycle. For example, even though the financial side may be given priority, but chronic dissatisfaction of the provider team leads to decreased productivity and further exacerbates any lingering financial woes.

Find an Electronic Health Record System that can support everyone.