04/05/2012    

RESPONSES / COMMENTS (EMR) - PART 3

RE: Recommendations for EMR/EHR (Joshua Kaye, DPM)

From: Robert Wunderlich, DPM

 

Dr. Kaye brings up a point about printing hard copies of records generated in EMR/EHR. My response to his question, "What would you do if you came to your office on Monday morning and you couldn’t log in to Practice Fusion?" is simple: pull the chart and review the notes that I printed out with Practice Fusion at each visit, and dicate notes for any visits that day. 

I think this also answers the question about moving 'backwards' by printing out the records at each visit...you always have a hard copy backup. All EMR/EHR systems are subject to computer error, loss of connectivity, and loss of electrical power. So what would you do if you couldn't log in to your $10,000 EMR system Monday morning? Whether it's web-based or you have a server on-site, if you didn't print out hard copies of patient records, you'd be stuck. I think this brings up a very good point: even with the best EMR system, we should all be prepared for the 'what if' scenario where we have no access to electronic records for a period of time.

Robert Wunderlich, DPM, San Antonio, TX, rwunder@gmail.com

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