EMR Implementation & HITECH Act Blog

EMRs Offer Significant Benefits to Medical Offices

We hear a lot of talk about Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) in a medical office, and all the potential trials and tribulations you may face implementing them.   When you look past all the talk about incentives, implementation and compliance, there are some solid benefits to be gained by a medical office implementing EMRs.

Here are a few question to ask yourself:

How many patient records does your staff pull – and later refile — for you and the rest of your medical office during the course of a month?   EMRs will eliminate that cost.   Even if you cut the cost of filing by just one or two FTEs in a year, that could easily be a $20-30,000 annual savings.

How many square feet do you have dedicated to the storage of paper records.   Could you make more money using that space as an exam room or a small lab?   Or how about just eliminating the cost of that space entirely? Assuming a hypothetical rental cost of a low $20 per square foot for 350 square feet of space, you could save $7,000 per year.

How much money do you spend for transcription during the course of a year?   A template-based EMR system combined with speech-to-text option can drastically cut the cost of transcription.   Even given that text-to-speech has not yet been perfected, you can still reduce transcription costs significantly.

How much do you spend on malpractice insurance each year?   According to a recent study of doctors in Massachusetts, doctors who have implemented EMR systems had fewer malpractice claims.   This may translate to reduced premiums for those medical offices that implement EMRs.  (Archives of Internal Medicine, Vol. 168, #21, November 24, 2008.)   If your malpractice insurance provider isn’t already offering a discount when you implement EHRs (2-5 percent is available from some carriers), you may be able to negotiate a premium reduction.

Could more accurate coding enhance reimbursements and revenue?   An article on the website of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons notes that EMRs that guide coding can substantially increase reimbursement rates.

These are just the benefits that can be assessed exactly.  The implementation of EMR in a medical office introduces efficiencies throughout the process of delivering medical care.   How much more money would you be able to make if you could increase your patient load by ten or fifteen percent without adding staff or space?

Add in the incentives being offered by the government through Medicare and Medicaid and it makes sense to implement EMRs now, so you can get the maximum amount of financial benefits for you and your medical office.

Rich Silverman
PC HealthStop Blogging Team

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Posted by PC Healthstop Blogging Team