Reaching The Rural Physicians

By Author: ndxmart
Total Articles: 426
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Although the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act includes funding for electronic medical records (EMR), many small physician practices, especially internal medicine specialties in rural areas, are still slower to adopt software. Rural physicians experience complicated hurdles that aren’t seen in normal geographic settings. Some of these physicians will have to adopt EMRs with limited Internet connectivity, while others don’t know the first thing about EMR software.

The needs of rural physicians are different and a process for matching the physician practice with the right EMR system is the first step. There are hundreds of companies that make EMR systems, with web-based EMR software and locally installed EMR software being a clear differentiator. Additionally, physicians will need to define any work flow issues they experience and determine what kinds of functionality they want from their software. Rural internal medicine providers have typically been the slowest to adopt EMR software. Vendors that offer web-based EMR and internal medicine EMR may be the solution to the slow ...
... adoption rates among these providers.

Cost is also one of the major factors in adopting an electronic medical record system. Typically, Web based emr software has significantly lower upfront costs. This can reduce the capital investment that many rural physicians are not in a position to spend. Also, internal medicine EMR software is characteristically less costly than EMR software that is specialty specific. Physicians also have the option to pay for the software through private funding agencies that can offer reasonable monthly costs for locally installed software. After demonstrating meaningful use and receiving stimulus funds, these costs can be paid.
Physicians across the nation should be encouraged to adopt EMR software. Connectivity to other physicians, including rural physicians, is critical to establishing an efficient healthcare community for patient care.

For more information about Web based emr, please visit www.intivia.com