Making the move to EHR

This flow chart gives you a start for the questions that will need to be considered as you evaluate moving to electronic health records.

You probably will need to add workstations, and that will require wiring.  Wireless throughput is not going to offer the level of reliability that you will need.  If you are unhappy with your current arrangements for billing, now is the time to do something about that.  It is very likely that your lab has a database with years of historical data.  We will want to find a way to load that data into your new EHR.  If you have multiple office locations we will need to set up your configuration so you have security and seamless access.  For practices that access images the bandwidth requirements are usually higher.  We will want to insure that your system is very responsive so you are not losing valuable clinic time waiting for images to download.  Many practices want to see certain data elements together in a single display.  Most systems do provide ways to create these displays.  What you need in this regard can be a strong indicator for which system is the best fit in your practice.  All practices have some paper records that they are looking to retire.  It is possible to scan those, but in many cases this is marginally productive.  It often looks like scanning or back-loading data is necessary when the reality is that it is rarely looked at. 

Assisting you with these questions is where Technology Deltas can help you make the right choices given today’s options.

Questions to Consider