EHR Myths Debunked

By Nancy Stafford

Everybody is talking about Electronic Health Records (EHR). While many find it exciting to follow the buzz about them, others may be confused about what is true and what is not. It is often difficult to figure out if people are talking to you about EHRs because they have an agenda or because they are genuinely interested in improving your workflow.

Let’s cut to the chase and examine some of the myths surrounding EHRs.

Myth #1: Cost is the biggest barrier to EHR adoption

Cost is certainly a factor, but underlying that is the fear of buying an EHR technology that will be obsolete before the staff can use it. Additionally, many articles have been published revealing the lack of focus of the EHR adoption movement.

Yes, cost is a factor, but there are new offerings to help make the transition cost to EHR manageable and spread out instead of a huge initial investment. Technologically and financially it does not make much sense to host your own server unless you have an Information Technology (IT) staff hidden away in your utility closet. Therefore, another way to think about your EHR investment is as a remote server.

Remote servers can be a subscription EHR hosting service or a community server. Contracting with a server company or network has many advantages. These companies are server professionals. They know their systems and take care of the maintenance and upgrades. They do all the checks regularly. It is their business to make sure their server is up and running. They have continuous security in place both technical and human. They have a generator on site to provide continuous power to the data center.

But if the possibility of outdated technology is an issue, these companies also offer upgrades as part of their contract. That means that you will have the very latest technology, so you won't have to worry about your system becoming dated.

Myth # 2: EHR will disrupt your practice and cost you business

You could let EHR disrupt your practice and cost you business, but you are too smart for that. Yes, there will be a learning curve for you and your staff to implement and get used to the EHR system. However, you as a savvy business person will know that gradual implementation and training will help that learning curve move to a manageable task.

The key is to choose the EHR system that fits your practice best. Get others involved, like your staff and stakeholders, to determine which system is best for your practice. Consider that EHR is not just a system; it is a tool that can help providers to deliver care differently, more effectively and with more information to help in decision making. Consider why your patients come to you and not the other providers in your area. They trust you. EHR can give you more tools to build more trust.

Think of EHR as an advantage to your patient care. EHR helps you move from the 19^th century patient care model to the 21^st century. Patients know more now about their conditions than they did in the past. The media publishes study results and splashes drug recalls as breaking news. EHR puts you in touch instantly with specific information to help your decisions. EHR is not the elephant in the room; it is the sprite hovering around your ear whispering all the correct answers.

Some practices are showing more profit as a result of effective use of EHR. They report removing billing contractors and staff from the payroll. They report better and more rapid insurance reimbursements through more effective communications with the health insurance providers. All of these are evidence that EHR does not disrupt business.

Myth # 3: EHR is not going to be around, so why bother

OOPS, this is a big misconception. EHR is here to stay in one form or another. We simply cannot ignore how important information transfer is in every aspect of our lives. In grocery stores, inventory is updated by that bar-code reading scanner. You buy one can of baked beans and the scanner records that one can of XYZ brand baked beans with onions sold. It immediately updates the store's inventory and on the next supply truck, there is that replacement can.

The medical practice is much more complicated than managing a grocery store. Their inventory doesn't change often; your inventory of information changes hourly. There is no way for you to keep up to date without some help. EHR can be that help, connecting you to the information you need based on your patient's situation.

The federal government has recognized that EHR is the beginning of bringing medicine into the 21^st century. They have thrown money and resources toward defining and implementing widespread EHR adoption. They've instituted incentives to adopt EHR – ranging from higher Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement rates to EHR capable providers, stimulus money to help defray purchasing and implementation costs and the dis-incentive of lower reimbursement rates in the future for providers who choose not to use EHR.

Myth # 4: The EHR offerings are too great and it’s impossible which one to choose

This one may have some validity, but there are ways to deal with this oversupply issue. Reading non-biased information is a good place to start. There is simply too much information for a busy practitioner to sift through. However, as in many other aspects in life, thorough research is key.

To be in charge of your EHR system selection, begin by making a list of what you expect your system to do for your practice. It could look something like this:

• Billing
• Appointment scheduling
• Appointment confirmation calls
• Capture verbal notes
• Insurance formularies
• Insurance network providers
• Tests
• Preliminar results
• Final results
• Repeat test results
• Treatment options
• Symptoms
• Patient encounter notes
• The look and feel of my current forms

Once your list is made, your selection process becomes more clear. Prioritize the items on your list. Now begin your shopping. Having done the research, you will have specific questions to ask vendors and salespeople once the selection process begins. And, of course, the vendors will give you answers. After that, it is up to you and your team to decide which solutions provider is right for you.

Myth # 5: EHR opens me up to too much liability

All providers worry about liability, but the statistics just do not support that EHR will make you at a higher risk. Recent reports from a survey published in the Archives of Internal Medicine in November 2008 do not believe this to be true. The survey of 1140 physicians from Massachusetts found that 6.1 percent of EHR users paid liability claims, whereas 10.8 percent of the physicians without EHR paid liability claims. For more information try this page or the original article in the “Archives.”

Another article states that EHR may actually protect providers by offering legible office notes, and logical and standardized documentation. In addition, some providers reported a decrease in their liability insurance premiums.

Remember when you were a kid and played telephone with every child sitting in a circle whispering a phrase or a sentence to the next person. At the end of the line, the message was highly distorted and we all laughed. Now it is no laughing matter as it will affect our business and our patient care delivery.

Let's assume the message put into the first person's ear is “EHR will help our practices grow.” Many translations later this phrase comes out as “Practices that adopt EHR groan”. Avoid being swept up in misinformation, gather information on your own and make your own decisions.