The Nashville Tech Story (July 15, 2009)
Each year the concern over environmental protection continues to grow. New programs are formed everyday to find new ways to recycle and make the world a more efficient and cleaner place. The EPA estimates that a single person uses more than 700 pounds of paper products each year. The health care industry has been a major contributor to that consumption in the past. However, health care professionals have been continuously experimenting and working to implement electronic medical and health record programs (EMRs / EHRs) into their organizations.
With more than 300 EMR and EHR programs, electronic medical records continue to be a hot topic in the health care industry. Not only does an EMR program offer a new way to chart patients, but it also offers health care professionals and their organizations advantages that can be overlooked. While the most noticeable advantage of the programs is going “paperless,” these programs also offer:
• E&M coding advice
• electronic prescribing and formulary
• bi-directional laboratory integration
• pay-for-performance tracking
An EMR program can be tough to implement because most are designed for certain specialties and sizes of clinics. Electronic medical records is similar to a CRM database for a business where the EMR can be purchased billing software or medical practice management software within a fully-integrated suite.
Another fact that some health care professionals tend to overlook is the help that the federal government can provide. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, was recently put in place by congress as part of the national stimulus package. It states that providers that qualify as “meaningful users” of EHR systems are eligible to receive $40K – $60K in incentive payments paid out over a five year period in the form of Medicare and Medicaid premiums.
While EMR and EHR programs are definitely important to the health care industry, some professionals still need to learn the in’s and out’s of the process and what resources are available to them. The Nashville Technology Council can be one of your resources.
The Council will be hosting our Super Roundtable event, “The Naked Hospital” on August 6th at the Hillwood Country Club. We will be hosting a panel during the event based specifically on PHR, EHR or EMR. For more information on this panel or the other elements of this event, please click here.
