5 Signs You Need a New EHR

As a healthcare provider, you know how crucial it is to provide quality care services and boost staff productivity in your medical practice. However, if one of your tools is causing stress to your staff or patients, you must fix it quickly. This case is especially true if your Electronic Health Record (EHR) software is the cause.

The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) believes EHR software should be high-quality, safe, and efficient. To achieve the actual benefits of EHR systems, you should transform your medical incorporating quality improvement methodologies, team-based care, and evidence-based medicine.

Hence, if your EHR software isn’t doing well, you might want to consider changing it. The question is, how do you know when it’s time to replace it?

In this article, we’ll discuss the 5 signs that you need a new EHR.

5 Signs You Need a New EHR

Read these 5 major signs to determine whether your EHR still serves your practice and the need to change it.

1. Staff Workaround

A workaround is a temporary solution to accomplish a task when a planned or usual method doesn’t work. Staff workarounds in healthcare are sometimes necessary, especially due to inconsistent workflows or EHR usability issues. 

According to a survey, workarounds are widespread in hospitals. However, implementing a workaround consistently in your practice may compromise patient safety.

Regardless, it’s also the right sign that your current EHR software isn’t working well. You need a new one immediately if your current one does not have the features that meet the requirements of your practice. If not, it could result in incorrect billing/coding, missed patient appointments, and revenue loss. 

Doctors who use a good EHR can concentrate on caring for their patients rather than doing more administrative work. The software should speed up your processes without causing clinician burnout.

2. Time-Consuming and Errors in Clinical Documentation

The documentation of patient data accounts for 35% of physician time. Furthermore, medical documentation impacts both the quality of patient care and hospital funding. However, many clinic doctors are too busy to maintain good documentation. It should never be a burden for health professionals to take notes during a visit that can impair patient interaction. Even so, with rising paperwork requirements, feeling burdened is inevitable.

Ideally, physicians should complete charts fast following treatment to keep patient information fresh. Most hospitals mandate documentation completion within 24 hours of admission, 48 hours after surgery, and 15 days after discharge for completing the records. There is, however, sometimes a failure to follow this policy. Several factors contribute to time-consuming and errors in medical documentation:

• An illegible or messy handwriting
• Not completing the date, time, and signature fields of a medical record
• Medication and/or treatment documentation is lacking
• Missing or incomplete documentation

Moreover, one in five patients find errors in their visit notes. This issue can lead to your medical practice ceasing to operate if you wait to address this issue soon. 

Likewise, you can get your solution with an EHR that offers practice-specific notes. This type of EHR can pull patient data from the patient chart into the new encounter notes while also automating the process.

3. Long Patient Wait and Intake Times

A patient intake form is your practice’s first contact with the patient. It should be easy to understand, fast to fill out, and foolproof to enter. The disadvantage is that physicians never see paper forms since they often get lost or filed immediately. 

There is also the possibility of errors when nurses transcribe handwritten forms into the EHR. If the patient’s vital medical information is inaccurate, they may have to wait longer or repeat themselves. This process wastes time and resources. As a result, this complex paperwork causes frustration for both care providers and patients.

In contrast to paper intake forms, digital intake forms are accurate and efficient. Start today by implementing an EHR with digital intake forms for your patients, so they feel more comfortable! 

4. Too Much Paperwork 

Modern technology allows us to do many tasks digitally. If you still use paper charts, that’s fine. Still, you will miss out on the benefits of an Electronic Health Record (EHR) system capable of speeding up data processing, scheduling, billing, and health record exchange. However, it is not certain that all medical practices utilize EHR software. There is still a strong possibility that physicians in these practices use paper records. This type of situation concerns patients and staff because paperwork is time-consuming. Using paper for storing data and completing patient intake also results in errors. 

That’s why EHR systems have the primary purpose of eliminating paper records. The EHR’s efficiency, speed, and ease of use are crucial to your operations. Get reliable EHR software from a reputable vendor. You do not want a system that frequently crashes.

In other words, you should consider a new EHR if your current system does not provide you with the level of reliability you expect.

5. Incorrect Billing/Coding That Affects Cash Flow

Inaccurate coding or billing contributes greatly to poor cash flow. Patients can face serious risks if your billing staff enters the wrong codes for diagnosis. If there is a problem with the modifier, the location of the procedure performed can change. 

Outdated CPT codes may also lead to patients not realizing that their bill has increased. Healthcare providers and patients both bear the consequences of inaccurate coding and billing.

So, make coding and billing easier for your medical practice. Now is the right time to update your EHR software with integration and medical billing. This EHR software can remind physicians to complete coding and documentation requirements during visits.

Do you need a new EHR? 

EHRs offer medical practices the opportunity to address many common challenges. Choosing the right EHR can help address quality metrics, usability issues, employee efficiency, and revenue cycle management concerns.

Providing you with the Best

Choose only the best for your healthcare practice. 

At 1st Providers Choice, we understand our client’s needs and expectations for a higher performance level for billing and EMR software. That’s why we only offer the top-tailored medical billing system and EHR with features that will allow your practice to operate at its optimum potential, save time, and double your revenue.

Call us at (480) 782-1116 for immediate assistance or schedule a free demo with our experts TODAY.