More and more medical practices are converting to electronic health records than ever before. Not only are electronic health records easier to maintain, they are better for the environment and will cost your practice less in the long run.
Many medical practices overlook the costs of keeping paper charts. There are many costs involved with paper charts, such as the cost of the charts themselves and the costs associated with replacing and replenishing charts that wear out from continued use. Some practices spend more than $4,000 each year purchasing medical charts for the office. By converting to paperless record keeping, these practices can save a substantial amount of money over the years.
When you use paper charts, you must purchase new charts and inserts on a regular basis. Then you must pay for photo copy costs, toner, faxes and maintenance on the machines used for your record-keeping purposes. These expenses can add up to more than $2,000 annually. It is not uncommon for a practice to have between $5,000 and $10,000 in record-related expenses each year. If you take that money and invest it in an electronic record system, the system will eventually pay for itself over time.
Added Space and Convenience
Saved money is not the only reason so many practices are investing in electron records management. Imagine, for a moment, that you do not have to dedicate volumes of office space to endless patient files. Imagine that you and your staff will never have to search for a missing patient file. In fact, imagine that filing is a thing of the past for you and your staff.
Consider just how much time you and your staff spend each day filing records and searching for patient files. Consider how much of your practice's building space is dedicated to storing the files that contain your patient records. Now imagine those two factors are no longer an issue for your practice. That is exactly what electronic record keeping can do for your office.
Starting the Conversion Process
In theory, EMR will allow you to replace the paper charts you keep in your office. Of course, this isn't something that will happen overnight. You will need to begin the conversion process one step at a time, and the first step is recycling.
Once you have an EMR system in place, it is time to being the recycling of the paper charts that are used by your office. You can scan older patient records into an electronic database and recycle the older charts you no longer need. As new patients come in, you can begin using the EMR system to keep records for these patients, eliminating the need for paper charts altogether.
Putting Your Extra Space to Good Use
Once your files have been migrated into an electronic format, you will find that you have an abundance of space that is no longer dedicated to storing patient files. That extra space can be converted into additional treatment rooms.
Treatment rooms equate to money. These are the rooms that generate revenue for your practice. If at all possible, try to convert the space that was used for file maintenance into added treatment rooms for your practice.
If the space that was storing your patient records can not be converted into treatment rooms, do not leave the space unused. Instead, try to create work stations for staff to use for authorizations and referrals. Not only will you be saving money by converting your file management to an electronic format, you will also be generating added space for your practice and reducing stress and increasing productivity for your practice's employees.
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