Medical CME Conferences

Recently, many new sources have published articles about the Federal Government’s $30 billion incentive plan to get physicians to switch from paper medical files to meaningful use of computerized health records. Physicians can receive  more than $40,000 for switching to digital. If you are one of the 80% of U.S. physicians who are not currently utilizing electronic medical records (EMR), what does this mean for you?

Ready or not, it’s time to get on board but here are some things you should know:

• “Meaningful use” is the key word – This means that you will need to  use a computer for at least 80 percent of your instructions for patient care
• You will have access to rich data and will be able to more frequently provide the care your patients should be getting. For example, the computer may remind you of a follow-up that your patient needs or specific guidelines for management
• The switch to EMRs causes many practices and organizations months re-organizing their entire workflow
• EMRs may not save you tons of time but will help you spend your time more efficiently
• EMRs will cause overall health care costs to come down but may not save your individual practice money
• Aside from the Federal incentive, if your practice does not transition to EMR in the next 5 years, you will get paid less by organizations like Medicare compared to your digital peers
• For such a massive health care overhaul, the technology is still not where it needs to be

The bottom line is, EMR is the way of the future, will enable you to provide more competent patient care,  and if you don’t get on board now, you will lose money in the long run.

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