Finding the right EMR can be difficult. With many vendors to choose from, it’s difficult to know which one will work best for your behavioral health practice.
There are many questions to ask when figuring out what the right system will be.
At the very least, the right EHR should provide the following patient care benefits:
Data Security and Backups
If you have a local server-based EHR system, then you are flirting with disaster. In the event that anything happens to your servers, do you have copies of your records stored off-site? Are you prepared for disaster management and data recovery? The right behavioral health EHR solution will safeguard your patients’ records. With a cloud-based EHR, there is no hardware or software problems to worry about. All patient information and records are stored remotely. Psychiatrist and therapists can securely log in from anywhere they have Internet connection.
Reduced Patient Wait Times
Transitioning from paper-based methods to EHR technology should reduce patient times. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. If your staff poorly understands the system or find it hard to use, then wait times may actually increase for patients. The right EHR solution should make it easy to pull up records and cut wait times.
Improved Decision Making
The right EHR supports your decision-making process, offering you the tools and information to make the right call. With well-organized, comprehensive and extensive patient information at your fingertips, both from your practice and other providers the patient sees, you have more complete information for your treatment.
Better Patient Communication
Whether it’s requesting patients to update their health records or to schedule the next appointment, the right EHR fosters better patient-provider communication. Through a patient portal, patients can update and verify current information prior to arriving at the office. They can also receive medication instructions and additional educational material. Good patient communications also includes automated appointment reminders, recalls and health maintenance alerts. With the push by the government to have patients to play a more active role in their healthcare, the right system will help you achieve these goals as well as Meaningful Use attestation.
With the right EHR, you can achieve great results at your behavioral health practice – providing better healthcare, faster, resulting in satisfied patients.
