Electronic health records are definitely the talk around the medical office water cooler these days. Medical offices who are considering going electronic have heard that EHRs make you less productive and have long implementation schedules. But how much of your productivity actually suffers? It all depends on whether your practice decides to use a point and click method or integrate a medical transcription service into your electronic health records.
By integrating medical transcription services into your electronic health records, physicians no longer have to document a patient's condition by pointing and clicking at pre-assigned categories that only tell part of the story. Study after study has shown a significant loss of productivity when they choose such a point and click system over integrating traditional dictation into their electronic health record. The most effective way to boost productivity while making the switch is to integrate medical transcription services into electronic health records. It's as simple as that.
Did you know that dictated and transcribed documents make up more than half of a typical health record? Most health records contain a doctor's verbal description of a patient's condition that cannot be narrowed down to the predefined categories of the point and click system available through many electronic health records. Doctors cannot tell the complete story with a point and click system in their own words. The more time they spend wrestling with the vague categories of the point and click system, the less time they have to spend on the patient.
Most physicians who make the switch through a point and click system will notice that they'll spend at least 1 or 2 more hours per day on documentation alone. They'll also end up seeing 2 to 4 fewer patients per day after they've made the switch. This kind of difference can mean a loss of more than a thousand dollars a week for every doctor. In the case of point and click methods, electronic health records become a step backwards in physician productivity.
If you stick to traditional dictation process in your electronic health records, you'll find it takes a physician only 2 minutes speaking into a digital recorder what would take 10 minutes to record with the point and click method. This time adds up to less care the doctor can give each patient, fewer patients that can be seen, and less money the physician practice makes in the course of a day, all in the push to switch to electronic health records.
The truth, however, is that you really don't have to give up the dictation process when you make the transition to electronic health records. Simply integrate dictation services into an electronic format. Physicians don't need to learn a new process, they can use their own language to describe a patient's condition, and they have more time to see that patient.
EHRs should improve productivity, not be a step backwards in time. Advance your productivity into the future with integrated medical transcription service into your electronic health records from a capable medical transcription company.