Why Should Your EHR Be “In Service” by December 31, 2011?

As we move further along on 2011, you should seriously consider your plans for the year and the most advantageous (and soon to be extinct) tax benefits of an EHR investment in 2011 or 2012.

What are the Critical EHR Technology Infrastructure Issues?

The loss of access to you PMS may be disruptive, but your will still be able to practice medicine.  However, the loss of your EHR will stymie you clinical operation and pose serious challenges to continue serving patients.  Preventing the loss of your EHR requires appropriate hardware design and management commitment to invest monies to mitigate the chance of an EHR failure.

What are the Issues with Clinical Content?

Clinical content refers to the various checklists, documents, and forms that address an area of medicine when using an EHR.  For example, a pediatric practice would be interested in documentation tools for a newborn visit. Not all EHRs have clinical content for all areas of medicine.  For example, some EHRs have clinical content for internal medicine, but lack the details needed for dermatology or cardiology.

A disturbing number of practices have failed to analyze the clinical content of their EHR and are distributing exam documents and other information that do not adequately or accurately document patient care.  In the more serious situations, EHR clinical documents misrepresent the care provided and the patient’s condition.  For example, one practice was distributing exam notes that had inappropriate gender information for all patients.  In another situation, a specialist included extensive ROS information on the patient’s cardiovascular system which was not performed and not the specialist’s area of expertise.  Such problems could precipitate a wide array of care, insurance, and medical professional liability issues.

How Do You Provide Technical Support for an EHR?

Any EHR effort requires a plan to support the EHR technology.   Some practices have created an information technology (IT) position or even a department.  Unfortunately, many practices overspend on IT support that is more than they need technically, but less than they need operationally. 

What Are the Old EHR to New EHR Conversion Issues?

Data conversion from an old EHR to a new EHR is challenging and problematic.  In most cases, old contracts (and unfortunately many new contracts) do not obligate the current EHR vendor to provide the patient’s data or support the conversion.  Indeed, many practices are left to deal with the data that the current vendor “can” provide and the loading of data that the new vendor is ”willing”  to support. 

The gap between the old EHR information and the new system could pose a variety of operational issues and call into question continuity of patient care and even your stewardship of the patient medical record.  Indeed, contextual issues due to missing information and placement in the new EHR may complicate clinical decision making.

What Should You Worry About on Transitioning from Paper Charts to an EHR?

The transition from paper to EHR is a major policy decision that can have repercussions on patient service, your operations and even your medical professional liability (MPL.)  Unfortunately, many practices are not taking the time to analyze their options and responsibilities from a patient care and compliance standpoint.  In order to set the correct framework for your effort, you should think about how you would answer questions about your paper chart transition strategy in order to prove due diligence in maintaining the patient record and/or in the transition from the paper chart to your EHR.

ISSUE:  Disposition of the Paper Chart in the Move to EHR -

What MPL Issues are Associated with Meaningful Use (MU)?

Any transition of patient clinical records presents potential problems and issues that could affect medical professional liability (MPL).  Attainment of Meaningful Use is no different.

The Meaningful Use (MU) Criteria frames the use of a Certified EHR that enables a practice to qualify for the Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments.  Eligible Providers must fulfill 15 Core Measures and 5 of 10 Menu Set Measures to attain MU (For a complete list, go to https://www.cms.gov/EHRIncentivePrograms/Downloads/EP-MU-TOC-Core-and-MenuSet-Objectives.pdf ).  Many measures are associated with level of use based on a defined way of counting eligibility and usage.  For example, clinical summaries are to be provided for 50% of all office visits within 3 days of the visit to meet the clinical summary measure.

Your MU strategy should consider several MPL issues: