Microsoft Technology Protects Your Emr Investment

By Author: Jamie Hanson
Total Articles: 3534
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The investment you make in acquiring electronic medical record (EMR) hardware and software is significant-but the investment you make in ensuring that the system works the way you want it to is even greater. How can you protect that investment?

Physicians can easily spends hundreds of hours ensuring that their EMR works as it should. Templates have to be developed, macros have to be created. But what happens when these modifications are made to proprietary systems? They may not be transferrable to other applications.

And if that's not a problem, but what if you someday want a change? Many doctors find the EMR they first selected isn't the one they want for the longer term. In fact, some industry data suggests that there's a nationwide de-installation rate of 30 to 40 percent. If this happens to you and your data is "locked in" to your first EMR, you'll have to recreate everything.

The solution is a Microsoft-based EMR. Not only is it built on a robust system that offers stability and security, it will also protect your investment of time and resources by ensuring you can move your data when and if you ...
... need to.

Where can you find a Microsoft-based EMR? It's not easy. Today, hundreds of EMR providers tout an array of products with many features-but most are built using proprietary technology. When you do, you'll get the benefits of having an EMR system:
- Better collections - The best EMR systems on the market feature dynamic accounts receivables reports which enable the biller to drill down on each line item on screen to re-bill, access patient information, and access insurance information. These features alone will cut in half the time your staff spends on collections. These highly accurate reports provide valuable information on everything that is outstanding, the number of days that the claims have been out and which insurance companies are the slowest to pay, including how much each one owes.
- Control over practice - With new database technology and practice management systems that are linked to EMRs, you'll be able to run a number of different practice management reports to help keep you in control of your practice. There are a number of quick reports that can be printed out daily that tell practice owners things like the number of patients seen on a specific day, total collections, new patients compared to old patients, reschedules, cancellations, etc. all on one screen.
- Practice automation - The total automation of the front and back offices will drastically cut down on labor costs. Scheduling, super-bill creation and management, document management, and integration with the EMR, will save your office hours each day. New patient portal features give the patient the ability to fill out their demographics online before they even come in to the office for their appointment, at a kiosk within your office or via their marking a bubble sheet will save your staff from having to fill this information out upon patient check-in. Scheduling will also become faster, more accurate and will remind you to authorize a patient's insurance before they come in.

EMR Software adoption is expected to increase significantly over the next several years thanks to Federal stimulus money earmarked for the implementation of electronic medical records systems nationwide.