The Right Independent Care EHR: How to Make a Smooth Transition

Searching for a new electronic health record (EHR) solution can be a daunting task for anyone. For the independent physician managing a practice, overseeing staff, and providing quality healthcare to patients, it can be even more challenging. There are a few things to keep in mind in the search for a new EHR that will help the transition go a little smoother.

Making the decision to implement a new EHR is the first crucial step. Understanding what the practice needs in terms of efficiency and the ability to provide quality care is critical. Before making a final selection, the independent physician should exam certain criteria, including:

Cost. The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) stresses the need to compare “apples to apples” when looking at the cost of EHRs. It is important to understand the pricing structure as well as anything that might be included in the contract related to licensing, leasing, and purchasing. Creating a spreadsheet that outlines the details of each EHR’s cost will help the independent physician clarify the various cost structures.

Ease of implementation. A busy medical practice is focused on patient needs. The independent physician and the practice’s staff should not have to spend extraordinary amounts of time on implementing an EHR. The independent physician should contact EHR vendors to request proposals, asking for details on the implementation procedure, including the total time required to get set up and to be fully functional.

Training. Another consideration that should be included when asking questions in the search for a new EHR for an independent practice is whether the vendor offers training for all staff members who will be involved in using the system.

At Elation Health, we understand that the primary focus of the independent practice has to be on providing quality healthcare to patients. That’s why we designed our clinical first, cloud-based EHR to take less than an hour to learn. We’ll even migrate previous patient data free. In addition, with Elation’s extraordinary 24/7 support, independent physicians and their staff are assured of being able to get help from our team of dedicated user success specialists within 30 minutes or less – 365 days a year.