Babbitt N 2003 "In record time: diary of an EMR installation."
Reference
Babbitt N. In record time: diary of an EMR installation. Health Manag Technol 2003;24(2):28-30.
Abstract
"For years, the physicians, nurses, and staff at Roswell Pediatric Center, PC, in Alpharetta, GA, wanted an electronic medical record (EMR). With trepidation, beginning in early 2000, a four-person search team embarked on an 18-month search to find the right EMR. During the summer of 2001, the team selected [a system], in large part for its user-friendliness, with three screens that [the vendor] guaranteed would be customized to meet workflow and office visit patterns. Roswell purchased the system in August 2001 and was live by November. The implementation process took seven weeks for four steps: 1. familiarization, 2. configuration, 3. verification, and 4. deployment. Roswell is an EMR installation success story. Staff and vendor alike dedicated substantial behind-the-scenes effort to planning, analysis, and organization, and these were critical components to success."
Objective
To give an example of an electronic medical record (EMR) success story at a clinic with nine physicians and six nurse practitioners.
Tools Used
Type Clinic
Primary care
Type Specific
Pediatrics
Size
Small and/or medium
Geography
Suburban
Type of Health IT
Electronic medical records (EMR)
Context or other IT in place
Practice management system
Workflow-Related Findings
"On the front end, the practice management system communicates demographic information to the EMR. On the back end, the EMR communicates billing information into the practice management system."
"We customized more than 90 visit templates, each with a reason for visit as well as links to suggested medications, procedures, educational handouts, and diagnosis and billing codes. We customized the chart's summary screen to contain the information that physicians wanted to see when they first open the chart, plus wellness reminders. Also, we developed templates for the phone triage nurses and timetables for our most common send-out tests, decided on educational handouts and added our referring physician list."
The vendor "had recommended a phased-in utilization. They suggested using the EMR for 30 percent of visits, or every third patient, on the first day, 50 percent the second day, 75 percent the third day and 100 percent by the week's end. The EMR was easier to use than paper. The first day, practitioners used it at least 50 percent of the time. Practitioners and staff even developed a competition to see who could use the system more. By the second day we were close to 100 percent."
Study Design
Story
Study Participants
The study participants included clinicians and staff at Roswell Pediatric Center, P.C., in Alpharetta, GA.