Due to the HITECH act and stimulus payments made to providers who adopted health care technology roughly 70% of all medical practices have an EHR. Howev
er many of those were implemented in 6 to 7 years ago and were based on older client server technology, requiring costly hardware and even more costly professional IT support.
Many of these first generation EHR's are complicated, difficult to use and struggle to meet both changing government requirements (MIPS) and meet consumer demand, both provider and patient in an era of intuitive, easy to use, cloud based software.
Faced with new demands as a result of MACRA MIPS many practices are making the switch to user friendly cloud based EHR and practice management systems that offer benefits to the practice and patients as well.
Reporting in their annual survey of EHR's - the Black Book Ambulatory Survey found that the adoption rate of cloud-based EHRs in small urban practices has increased from 60 percent in 2013 to 82 percent in 2015!
If you're looking to replace your EHR or are getting one for the first time the goal of this post is to provide you with a checklist of items that are important in a cloud based EHR.
What to Look for When Selecting a new EHR
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MACRA MIPS Ready - Make sure your software has MIPS built in. MIPS is here, it started on 1/1/2017. Succeeding with MIPS means succeeding financially as an independent practice. Make sure your software has this vital feature today, and that it's easy to use and adds value, not time to your day.
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iPad Ready - One barrier to adoption of EHR's has been that providers don't like to put technology between themselves and the patient. Having to turn away to use a keyboard or using a laptop is often clumsy and takes away from patient care. Make sure your EHR is fully native on an iPad, not an app, the entire EHR. iPad's are small, user friendly and unobtrusive
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Patient Friendly, Useful Web Portal - Provide your patients with a tool that adds value to your relationship with them. In an era of Facebook, Amazon and Twitter, your patients expect to be able to interact with your practice from their phones, iPad and computer. Your portal should have useful benefits such as the ability for patients to see and pay their bill, request an appointment, complete your practice's forms online and securely message the office. The portal should be cloud based, available from anywhere and on any device.
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100% Cloud Based EHR and Practice Management - Today's EHR's should be like Amazon - available anywhere and everywhere and on any device or type of computer. Servers and the need for expensive IT services don't add value to what you do.
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No Setup Costs - Big upfront expenses can be potential a disaster to your successful implementation. Choose an EHR that offers no cost setup and configuration services.
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No Training Costs - Proper and sufficient training is one of, if not the key factor in the success of an EHR. A quality EHR vendor will offer top notch training at no cost and continue to provide ongoing training free.
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No Service or Upgrade Costs - One of the most compelling benefits of a top quality cloud based EHR is that it requires little if any ongoing support. As a result support and future upgrades should be included free.
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Secure - Make sure your cloud based EHR is fully secure and meets or exceeds all HIPAA and industry standards. Data centers should have 24x7x365 armed guards, redundant power and Internet and be fault tolerant over multiple data centers.
Let's Talk
These are just some of the many important factors to consider in choosing and succeeding with an EHR. We'd love to have the opportunity to have a longer conversation with you about how the NextGen Office EHR/PM can provide these benefits and many more to your practice.
To start the conversation or learn more please click the link below or give us a call at 877-975-9160. We're here to help!
