Electronic Medical Records Goals

• Improve the quality and value of patient care
• Reduce administrative, staffing burden
• Immediate access to patient information
• Reduced medication errors
• Increase patient satisfaction through quicker patient intake, chart creation and throughputs
• Increased practice efficiency leading to a better use of your time

These are some of the benefits of having an office electronic medical record system. It is a necessity now. The selection process of an office EMR is a complex process where we have to look at many factors- how easy is it to use, how expensive, how does it communicate with the hospital, how does it communicate with other practices, etc.

The office staff at a medical practice are going to be using the EMR and will need to redesign the workflow to make patient care better, safer; make it easier for the physicians and also for the staff members themselves.

There are natural questions about how office EMR will affect staffing?

I suggest you read this link:

http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2009/10/05/bisa1005.htm

I am envisioning that EMR will redefine the roles of staff members, with more emphasis on patient education, manageing disease registry, etc.

I am excited about it.