EMR Software Procrastination Must Be Avoided

Now is not the time to balk about purchasing your EMR packages. Physicians must realize that the future is now as U.S. Healthcare revamps.

Great-grandfather hesitated when it was time to sell the horse and buy a car. Outfitting your rural home with indoor plumbing was no doubt frightening to those who preferred an outdoor privy in back. We still don't know how electricity works – only that it does. Many physicians prefer to write scripts in barely legible cursive handwriting, and overwhelm their patient and dedicated staffs with mountains of files, each easily misplaced folder containing a patient record. They hold on to this preference often out of whimsy, an attachment to the familiar sometimes referred to as "it's just the way we've always done it."

Physicians can be like any of us, a recalcitrant lot. Change can be painful and expensive. Long-term benefits of change can seem like a distant horizon, especially if medical school is fading into memory as it gives way to the grueling rigors of an everyday practice.

But we are entering, together if not hand-in-hand, a different world. It is already 2009. While the former Bush Administration made motions toward the digital age and began to strategize in that inevitable direction, the Obama Administration is full steam ahead. Stimulus monies, reimbursements for those fortunate physicians wishing to take advantage of EMR software opportunities while the getting is good, will begin to be disbursed as of January 1, 2011. What participation in the digital revolution that is now optional will become mandatory for physicians and hospitals by 2015. It is not the time to balk like great-grandfather did when it was time to sell the horse. Procrastination is as unsanitary today as it was when indoor plumbing was perceived as "unnatural" by those who were soothed by the privacy of their outdoor privies. Waiting too long to go digital might allow competitors to pass one by. Fox Meadows Software has been in the business of helping physicians in 20+ specialties longer than almost anyone else. We want to help. It's okay to wait, to make the best choice for your situation, to get precisely the right EMR package that is destined to serve you well. Just know that the clock is ticking, and that the choosing is inevitable, as inevitable as turning on a light once was.

To learn more about electronic medical records, emr software, medical billing software visit Foxmeadows.com.

Fox Meadows EMR Software Is Buoyed by Obama-Era Mandated Changes

The Obamatization of the U.S. Healthcare System only emphasizes that the "time is now" when it comes to EMR software purchases.

President Obama has been keeping up the pressure to reform the U.S. Healthcare System, with a centerpiece of his new juggernaut of change focused clearly on EMR software packages. General Electric has also opened May with a reflexive big corporate marketing push called Healthymagination. It too promises to help move us closer to digital patient recordkeeping in every sense. But the $787 billion economic stimulus package, with a healthy chunk of those funds directed at EMR modernizing, remains the boulder that's been rolled down the hill. Poised to benefit from these Obama-era free market tidings is Fox Meadows software, and the platform of extremely relevant packages they now support.

It isn't as if Fox Meadows is a new kid on the digital EMR block. For years we've been providing efficacious solutions while serving thousands of physicians in 20+ specialties nationwide. But with all that's suddenly going on, and with that giant boulder of healthcare reform suddenly picking up speed as it rolls down that glorious hill that some like to call "the future," a new urgency is entering the mix. Always a learning curve exists for physicians embracing change and trying a software package that is optional now, but in just a few years, will become mandatory. The curve to reach an 80% efficiency ratio typically takes three to six months – even under the best of circumstances. The 80% threshold doesn't mean a whole lot now, but come January 1, 2011, it will become a crucial factor determining reimbursement for stimulus-related purchases of EMR software packages. If the threshold fails to be met by a physician no matter how well intentioned – he or she will be sent to the back of the line as any reimbursement check will be delayed. Thoughts of selecting the right package are legitimate and necessary too, but if the trigger is not pulled in time …

Fox Meadows is available to assist any physician seeking to stay ahead of the curve. It takes courage to make decisions that entail considerable expense on the front end, decisions that can launch a physician's office into a brave new digital world. We want to help while there's still time. There is still time. But soon it will be 2010. As the day declaring "zero hour" nears, more physician's offices and hospitals will be deciding. It's like a thriller, only medical care reform is much better than any movie.

To learn more about electronic medical records, emr software, medical billing software visit Foxmeadows.com.

President Barack Obama's Remarks on Healthcare Costs Stress EMR Software

The President's remarks of May 11, 2009, place additional emphasis on the need to manage patient records in a digital way.

It was additional reinforcement for his pro-EMR position as if any was needed. In his remarks of May 11, 2009, he emphasized once again how essential healthcare reform is to America. Like Franklin D. Roosevelt three generations before him, President Obama's plans are ambitious, but necessary, not only to right an ailing economy, but to establish a foundation of stability for the future. The President recognized a clear, indisputable fact: When it comes to healthcare spending, "we are on an unsustainable course that threatens the financial stability of families, businesses, and government itself." Prior to making his timely remarks, the President had just concluded an "extraordinarily productive" meeting with organizations that "are going to be essential to the work of healthcare reform in this country." But what he had to say about EMR software solutions was perhaps most telling.

"We are computerizing medical records in a way that will protect our privacy." In that single sentence is a pronouncement for a more sustainable future. If EMR solutions can become pervasive enough to become the rule rather than the exception at U.S. hospitals and at tens of thousands of physician offices nationwide, his ambitious plan just may work.

It won't be magical. Between now and January 1, 2011, when the floodgates to accept EMR reimbursement stimulus funds will officially open up, an unprecedented opportunity exists for physicians and hospitals to realign their mindsets and embrace a digital way of thinking. While a certain comfort level might exist in the tangible nature of paper trail-fed patient records, and in writing prescriptions with a scrawled and often illegible script, it is no longer feasible to rely on such outmoded, costly methods. User-friendly digital recordkeeping becoming ubiquitous will make a huge difference. But procrastination is not in order. If physicians choose to delay implementation of EMR software packages by putting off their selection processes, the stresses of a learning curve made essential by long overdue healthcare reform may well become untenable. This kind of stress is avoidable. Physicians, it's time to act. Digital recordkeeping is inevitable. The time to select and implement your EMR software solution is not yesterday, it is today.

David York is with Fox Meadows, a provider of electronic medical records software, EMR Software, and medical billing software. To learn more about electronic medical records, emr software, medical billing software visit Foxmeadows.com.

GE's New Healthymagination Campaign Will Boost EMR Sales

Announced on May 7, 2009, the General Electric blitz has put Obama-era Healthcare initiatives front and center – and EMR software is an integral part of the mix.

So far, the new Obama Administration has brought us a stimulus plan that included a healthy healthcare component with EMR mandates giving it teeth. An ingredient that seemed to be missing for producing concerted action among U.S. physicians was a big corporate response to Obama's initiative. Now, perhaps it is here.

May 7, 2009, should be inserted into your calendar as a day of "smart" bandwagon leaping. It's the day when General Electric launched "Healthymagination," a generous commitment of $6 billion "to enable better healthcare focusing on cost, access, and quality." Of this total, half (about $3 billion) is pledged by 2015 to foster healthcare innovation, delivering better patient care at lower cost, with EMR software packages for the public and private sectors becoming an integral part of the mix. With EMR packages in place to a much greater extent than currently, GE targets to improve healthcare access are likely to be met.

In fact, among the critical need areas outlined by Healthymagination is "accelerating healthcare information technology," a bullet point that implies proliferating EMR software and could well be the key. GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt had this to say, "Healthcare needs new solutions. We must innovate with smarter processes and technologies that help doctors and hospitals deliver better healthcare to people at lower cost."

Immelt seems to be echoing President Obama and his federal administrators as they've discussed the $787 billion stimulus with its billions set aside for EMR-related innovations. Mandates are now in place to "come onboard" with necessary modifications to the way we do healthcare in the U.S., including the January 1, 2011, starting point to begin receiving stimulus funds designated for EMR purposes. With that firm deadline looming for physicians and hospitals to bring the "paperless" revolution to their own offices and patient records, the race to beat the rush has begun as 2009 ticks down. But impetus is added when big corporate joins the bandwagon as GE has done. Former U.S. Senator Tom Daschle, a member of GE's Healthymagination advisory board asserts, "We can only find real solutions in healthcare when business, government, and their partners work together." How correct he is.

David York is with Fox Meadows, a provider of electronic medical records software, EMR Software, and medical billing software. To learn more about electronic medical records, emr software, medical billing software visit Foxmeadows.com.