Entries from November 2007 ↓

Another nifty tip from the NextGen Users Group Meeting.

Dr. Cephus Allin spoke in some detail about it, as did at least one other presenter; I’m pretty sure this is passing into the NextGen cannon of “Successful Practices Do THIS — So Should You.”

It sounds so simple, but I can attest to its profound effects on reclaimed time — and best of all, it works regardless of your EMR platform. And with a sensible use of technology, it will work regardless of your office size.

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There’s a fascinating article on the EMR and HIPAA blog that I couldn’t pass up.

It addresses one governmental (i.e. Medicare) solution to the traditionally low adoption rates of physicians of EMR’s: lower the upfront costs to essentially zero with the VistA system built by the Veterans Administration.

The clincher for me was the following observation:

While Medicare’s plan is to offer the software for free, one must ask what free is. Currently, free is software but not training, installation, and ongoing support.

My commented response, heavily informed by the collective wisdom garnered from the recent NextGen Users Group Meeting, is reproduced below:

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I’ve never read anything by Joseph Stalin, but I gather he’d be much in demand for implementing EMR’s. From the management side, not the physicians.’

Dr. Cephus Allin’s presentation today, which referenced the late Soviet dictator, was titled How To Go From Paper To An EMR. It totally rocked; I wish I’d attended his other session, Why Everyone Needs An EMR. But that’s what happens when you have awesome content hidden behind modest titles.

Major take home points:

• shunt work more efficiently away from physicians onto support staff when possible
• less MD time/task = more patients scheduled/day
• abstracting the chart is much more important than scanning it
• limit the abstracting to absolutely necessary items (like problem list w/ICD-9’s, allergies, meds)
• limit the scanning to 10 pages per physician pass, and 3 passes, max, before bye-bye chart (ekg, last CPE, critical study reports/consults)
• when staff are limited and already multitasked-out, extend the go-live timeline, and adopt more incrementally and slowly

And that, indubitably, there are practices that just ain’t suited for EMR.

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I’m here at the annual NextGen Users Group Meeting, in Orlando, FL. While I hope to get the skinny on making my group’s NextGen EMR sit up, beg, and perform like a lonely Australian Sheepdog, my main mission is more generalized: to learn how better to assist new MD’s in successfully adopting this, or any, EMR system.

And if South Orange County California is anything like the rest of America, that means focusing on small group practices of three or fewer physicians.

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