EMR Software | My Optometrist

I envision the day coming that all medical practices, no matter what kind of practice they are, will transfer all of their paper medical records to a software solution. I work in as an optometrists secretary, and he has decided that we should all turn to an electronic medical record system where all of our records will be stored in a easy to use software program. I have heard of other practices cutting down on many expenses after converting to an emr software solution, and am very excited about how it will help my job become much better. It would save me and others hours of time wasted on filing many paper records and as we all know, time is of the very essence in any business, even more so if it is a medical practice.

We have decided that we are going to try it out. His other office has gone to EMR's and they have not had too many problems, but we have more patients here. The patients are also shared between the doctors many times, so this means that the others will be required to figure out how to use the system. Maybe when they do, they will be convinced that emr's can be a very good asset to their practice.

One Month Later
Now that we have been using the system for about a month, it has become apparent that transferring these records has been a large task. Nevertheless, the headache it has caused has been minimal as to what we had envisioned going in to the whole process. We have already seen many benefits by using this new system.

The problems have been minimal, however Glaucoma is a large problem that we just can't avoid, and I don't mean the disease but the process of recording information about it. Unless you have worked in an eye doctor's office before, you probably don't realize how big a chart can get for someone who has Glaucoma. Every patient with Glaucoma has to come in about every 5-6 months. Then we must perform two tests: an HRT and a visual field. It is necessary to print these tests off and it is also necessary to check both the right and left eye. There is just no way to get around that, since one machine can't store all of the info and not even one of the machines has a connection with the computers we use. Now, imagine one hundred patients that have to come in every 6 months and do the same two tests. We are looking at a lot of information that needs to be kept well organized and accurate.

In order to place the charts in a digital format we use a small scanner to get them all loaded. This process can take a lot of time, especially since our computers aren't exactly the latest and greatest in technology and can take extra time loading each chart from the scanner to the system.

Two Months Later
We have nearly completed the process of transferring all of our records. We have had some unforeseen problems, but they have been minimal. Overall the doctor has been pleased with his office's change.

Even though the problems have been minimal, there is one problem that seems to impede our progress: other practices. Unfortunately, the other practices in the office are very reluctant to change and therefore this impedes our own progress. However, once they start working with our patients and their electronic medical records, I have a good feeling that they will see how easy they are to work with and become converted.

Even with these minor problems, converting our clinic from paper to emr's has helped out considerably. We have less filing and it has become much easier to prepare for the next day's appointments. In the next meeting, I am going to propose all of our doctors go to EMRs and then maybe word will spread that EMRs are the way to go.

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