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First steps after you’ve gotten a new EHR system

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First steps after you’ve gotten a new EHR system

First steps after you’ve gotten a new EHR system August 18, 2017

Congratulations! You’ve made the decision to purchase an electronic health record (EHR) system for your independent practice. Now what?

Getting the most of your new EHR system means that you will need to set it up and use it as quickly as possible. Writing in Physicians Practice, Alex Tate recommends several steps to take to make that happen. The first step is to contact your vendor to get assistance and training.

Elation works with our clients to make sure their EHR solution works for them. We migrate patient data for our clients for free and we offer training and 24/7 support. Elation’s cloud-based EHR is intuitive and generally takes less an hour to learn, so you can start using it for your practice right away.

Additionally, Tate recommends:

  • Use shortcuts when you can. Setting up templates and triggers can help reduce the amount of repetitive information that you will enter into the EHR, based on the typical types of illnesses and procedures your practice manages for patients.
  • Integrate a portal. Patient engagement is critical for the quality of patients’ healthcare as well as for meeting certain Medicare requirements. The patient portal enables communication to flow more seamlessly between patient and providers as well as between providers.
  • Investigate all of your EHR’s features. Explore the many opportunities to improve your practice and to provide quality healthcare to your patients using the EHR’s features. Set up practice management tasks for handling administrative tasks to help your practice run smoother.
  • Consider other add-ons. Coordinating additional technology tools with your EHR system can further improve your practice’s efficiency.
  • Stay current. Review the vendor’s information for updates and additional guidance on using your EHR to its fullest. Elation’s blog posts and resource center are designed to provide you with up-to-date news and assistance.
  • Get the entire team involved. Engage your staff in learning and using the EHR system for patient and practice management tasks.