IN THIS ISSUE - Academy of Dispensing Audiologists

BEYOND YOUR CLINIC WALLS
42 AUDIOLOGY PRACTICES n VOL. 3, NO. 2
The No-Confusion Way to
Choose an EHR
CYNDI BRYANT WALKER, CMB, CHBC
Reprinted from www.medscapes.com with permission
Introduction
If you’re still weighing the pros and cons of an
electronic health record (EHR) purchase, consider
this:
Forget about going to an EHR because the government
may or may not force you to comply.
Think of improving your practice and perhaps
your quality of life with the benefits of an EHR.
Your coding compliance will increase. You’ll have
access to data about your practice and patients
that would be impossible with a paper chart. An
EHR will have a major impact on your practice
and the way that you currently triage patients in
the office.
Here are common scenarios in offices without
an EHR: A paper chart is expensive to produce
and you can never seem to find it when
you need it most. A chart audit will most likely
confirm that your documentation does not add
up to the code reported. In my chart reviews I
find that physicians are either undercoding or
under documenting services performed and that
approximately 30% of handwritten charts are not
compliant.
Although choosing the right EHR can be confusing,
these 10 steps can help ensure that you’ll be
happy with your selection.
1. Take a closer look at ASP technology.
Application Service Provider (ASP) technology
means that the EHR program and data are
housed securely at a vendor’s or institution’s
location; you don’t need to have expensive servers
and tech support in your office if you have
high-speed Internet access.
The ASP EHR model will range from about $350
to $650 per month, plus training. Billing software
will be an additional cost. The other option is
buying an EHR that requires an in-house server
and software. Systems like this that I reviewed
averaged between $40,000 and $60,000 depending
on the amount of bells and whistles added.
With ASP models, benefit changes and software
improvements are continually updated on your
site so that your practice is always using the most
recent data and advanced software. You don’t
need proprietary hardware or additional servers.
You do not need to house your own server,
and many systems have a minimal cost up front.
You also will be able to log in from home to view
patient data and reports.
The downside to ASP technology is that when
the Internet is down, so are you. Make sure you
have good, stable Internet service before considering
this option.
2. Take your time and evaluate companies
thoroughly.
Two good resources for starting your search are
the KLAS reports and CCHIT-certified companies.
The KLAS rating will show you detailed
information from physicians about software performance
and cost. CCHIT (Certification Commission
for Health Information Technology) is