Starting a new practice is not an insignificant task.  Is that the best time to really look at an EMR?  Many of the new docs have voted yes by going the EMR route.  The logic here is why not start now and avoid a whole conversion effort later?  However, this move needs to be planned carefully as this does add another layer to consider in your newly minted practice.  The following are checkpoints taken from our standard implementation plan for you to add to your new practice checklist.

Gather your physician/provider setup information.  This typically includes:

• License Number(s)
• DEA Number
• SSN and or/ Employer Id Number (Your federal tax ID)
• Office location(s) and addresses
• Hospitals, Nursing Homes, ALFs that you may see patients in
• Your commonly used ICD codes, CPT codes, HCPCS codes and Medications

Gather your practice setup information.  This typically includes

• Practice Address
• CLIA number
• Practice hours

Gather your insurance related information.  This typically includes:

• Your insurance carriers – names and addresses.
• Your practice group number (if applicable) for each carrier
• Your PIN number for each carrier
• Default charges for each CPT or HCPCS code
• Allowed amounts for each CPT or HCPCS code (if you have an integrated package)
• If you are planning on filing electronic claims, please be aware that it will take about 4-8 weeks to get approval for electronic claims submissions for Medicare, Medicaid and Blue Cross.  Plan for this delay and sign up early.

Training

·         Please make sure that you schedule UNINTERRUPTED time for training.  This is the single biggest favor you could do for yourself to prevent a lot of headaches later.

·         Please make sure that your staff are sufficiently trained in the appropriate areas and please participate in the training to ensure that they understand the software

Other items

• Your referral network – who refers to you and who do you refer to?
• List of users – who is going to be using the system
• List of access rights for users – who is going to be able to do what?
• Plan a lighter schedule for the first couple of weeks to ensure a smooth transition.

While this is not an exhaustive list for all EMRs, getting all of this ready prior to starting any EMR software implementation will make things smoother right from the start.  In any EMR or Billing software, the more time you spend in carefully planning and setting up the system, the less time you will have to spend on a day to day basis fixing things!

Naveen V.

http://www.emr-electronicmedicalrecords.com/

DoctorsPartner EMR and PM

Ralph Millsaps, MD (cardio1) is one Doctor who did start a new practice from scratch with an EMR solution. You can read his EMR Interview here where he describes how he got started and what challenges he faced.