How do you get older Docs to embrace technology?

This is the third of our Getting Started Sessions with Mark Anderson, CEO of the AC group. We talk about how you can get older Docs -- we have a few of these here -- to embrace technology and an EMR solution.

Mark starts by stating "Find out what the practice real needs are!"

You can listen to this interview by scrolling down and clicking the Blue Screen to play the audio from our interview.

Often you can find one or two Doctors who are close to retirement age. The issue this practice has is whether these two resistant Doctors hold up the whole EMR process, or if you can find a way to move the practice forward with an EMR. The trick is to still get benefits for those two Doctors.

Some Doctors have the attitude of "I'll retire or die before I ever use an EMR".

Actually its not always the real old ones, sometimes those in their forties or early fifties have a problem adopting an EMR.

You have to find a way of showing how the pratice can get benefits from the EMR, even if it doesn't change how those Doctors work.

What you can do is complete the automation of the check-in and front-desk. Have the patient, reception or nurse do some of the data-entry and form-filling. Create a daily "temporary chart" for those Doctors. A "paper-based" print-out of that patient summary, and then re-scan their paper notes. This is a workaround for those one or two docs who want to continue using paper -- except that we're going to re-scan these summary pages with the notes that the Doctor has made. Sometimes we would also attach a barcode to help the automated index of these notes back into the EMR.

"Can most EMRs do this -- a summary page?" Most can be tailored to generate a Patients social, medical, active medications, and a summary of last 3/4 visits, in a narrative format.

You don't need the whole paper-chart, but enough for that Doctors consultation.

You're similating the current documents that their already using.

Other tricks including using a "Digital Pen" -- dock it into a USB port and an electronic version of the Doctors handwriting can be imported into the EMR.

Start simple, but importantly they don't change the way they do things. What we also find is that they actually start using the EMR anyway, after 6 months, because it actually does help them do some things faster than their old paper methodology.

Some practices change their overhead fees depending upon if EMR used/not used. It's more more cost to the Doctor if he doesn't use the EMR system.

Is it data-entry that scares users? Write some notes on a screen. Maybe we try to automate too much of the thinking process.

Clinical data wants to be recorded, not all needs to be recorded. Do we record too much info?

Accomodate the older docs in a practice. Routine cases tend to be EMR based. Sometimes easier to use the secondary system.

Pretty well every other industry has some sort of Division of labor -- why is it that the Doctor is still trying to do it all.

Get the Patient or nurse to fill things in. We calculate that 42% of the data-entry can be done by someone else, other than the Doctor.

Implementation can be different depending on speciality, size, and the unique needs of group.

Implement around the practice not around the EMR (or how the EMR Vendor wants things implemented).

Why do EMRs fail? Maybe there are not enough older Docs around who question the solution.

What is the best way to do things for them and their patients -- don't try and do everything.

Back to that anecdotal Doctor quotation "I will retire before I use an EMR"

Firstly AC Group find practices that have automated an EMR are worth four times the value of those that are not automated. For that Doctor about to retire that's a lot more money in their returement fund if you automate today and retire later.

Secondly EMR is not only cost-effective, it can save them time without changing the way they do things.

As many as 15-20% of Doctors don't want an EMR -- maybe this is a strategy to still implement EMR while keeping them happy with the way they work today.

Thanks from emrupdate to Mark Anderson for taking the time to talk with me today.

You can download this MP3 as a podcast here. 

You can stream this media to your (MMS) media player here.

For more information about the subjects discussed here you can contact Mark Anderson at the details listed below.
See our other Getting Started resources here.

Mark R. Anderson CPHIMS, FHIMSS
CEO and Healthcare IT Futurist 
AC Group, Inc.
118 Lyndsey Drive
Montgomery, TX  77316
(c) 281-413-5572
(f)  832-550-2338
email: mra@acgroup.org
web: www.acgroup.org

Robert Gleeman
Medical Journalist and Sponsorship Agent
Email: robert@emrupdate.com
Tel: 1-650-968-6359
Skype: robertgleeman
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