5 Essential EHR Functions Every Specialty Practice Needs
Written by: Trevor Elliott, Principal Architect, Veradigm Solutions Development and Cheryl Reifsnyder, PhD
Not all doctors view their electronic health record (EHR) systems through the same lens.
A survey of over 30,000 physicians revealed that satisfaction with their electronic health record (EHR) technology varies immensely across different healthcare specialties. Is it surprising? Not in the least.
Different specialties have significant differences in their EHR requirements—because they have significant differences in their clinical content needs, care process and charting requirements, clinical workflows, decision support, and more.
What works seamlessly in one specialty might be a hindrance in another, underscoring the need for EHR systems that are not only flexible but also tailored to meet the distinct challenges of each specialty.
What is the function of an EHR?
The function of an EHR extends beyond mere data storage. The common functions of an EHR form the backbone of medical information management within a healthcare practice. However, the exact functionality can differ based on the requirements of the practice.
For instance, a primary care practice sees patients for a broad range of needs, while a urology practice provides care that is more focused in nature, creating unique requirements for EHR content and workflow. Some specialty practices require EHR functionality that is capable of receiving data from different medical instruments. Others need EHRs that meet specific requirements for data capture during patient visits.
Unfortunately, EHRs often fail to meet these specialty-specific needs. Researchers have found that when EHRs do not function adequately for a specific medical specialty, the result is decreased patient and physician satisfaction, impaired productivity, decreased efficiency, and difficulty meeting Meaningful Use requirements.
That’s why selecting the best EHR for your specialty practice is so important!
Top EHR functions for specialty practices
Selecting the best EHR for your specialty practice requires a thorough understanding of how the technology can fit your practice’s specific needs and requirements—which is why we bring you this blog.
These five “must-haves” go beyond the common functions of an EHR to include the aspects most important for specialty practices to keep in mind.
1. EHR content
One of the most important aspects to consider when selecting an EHR for a specialty practice is the breadth of content it includes. Specialty practices have unique content needs, ranging from specialty-specific terminology to specialty-specific requirements for clinical documentation. Specialty-specific templates for clinical documentation can help optimize workflows and make the documentation process more efficient.
Evaluate the depth and breadth of content a solution provides to ensure it aligns fully with your specialty-specific requirements. For subspecialties, these requirements become more complex, so it’s essential to select an EHR that can be supplemented with additional subspecialty information to better meet your practice’s needs.
The content needs of EHRs for specialty practices include the ability to handle specialty-specific incoming data. Specialty practices frequently have more diagnostic equipment feeding data into their EHRs than primary care practices. Their EHRs must be able to manage this data and share key information with other practices.
2. Capacity for customization
Studies have shown that EHR customization can increase provider efficiency and help mitigate clinician burnout. Researchers created a specialty EHR solution that allowed providers to customize visible information based on their specialty. These customized EHR views reduced the amount of time physicians spent navigating patient EHR records by 1/3. In another study, researchers found that a customized EHR implementation eased the demands of EHR documentation and mitigated clinician burnout.
Different healthcare specialties have unique workflow needs, with differing requirements for information collection, clinical documentation, regulatory compliance, and even medical billing.
To maximize productivity, a specialty practice requires an EHR that can be easily configured to reflect the nuances of their specific workflow. Customized templates can help physicians optimize data capture, streamline patient care, and improve patient outcomes while maintaining alignment with applicable healthcare standards.
3. A vendor committed to collaboration
When selecting an EHR for your specialty practice, evaluating the EHR vendor is as critical as evaluating the EHR solution. One reason is this: High-quality training and a strong relationship with the EHR vendor can significantly improve the practice’s EHR experience.
In fact, according to a KLAS specialty EHR satisfaction survey, the key factor in physicians’ level of satisfaction with their EHR is their degree of satisfaction with their training in that EHR’s use. In this survey of over 20,000 physicians, KLAS found that high-quality EHR use training was crucial to EHR satisfaction.
Physicians who reported poor training for their EHR were also more than 3.5 times more likely to report that their EHR did not enable them to deliver quality patient care.
However, while a focus on high-quality training can optimize the EHR experience, it cannot compensate for an EHR that doesn’t provide the functionality needed by a specific healthcare specialty—which is why it’s also essential to gauge the vendor’s commitment to your particular clinical specialty. A vendor committed to collaboration with your specialty will have plans for future technology development, plans to solve both your existing pain points and those arising in the future.
4. Advanced integration capabilities
EHR interoperability positively influences medication safety, reduces patient safety events, and reduces costs, according to one study. Specialty practices often use a variety of medical devices and software systems. An EHR must have the capability to integrate seamlessly with these technologies.
This ensures that data from diagnostic equipment, imaging tools, and other specialty-specific instruments are directly uploaded into the patient’s record, reducing errors and saving time. Specialty practices may use niche instruments, so it is important to find EHR functionality that can integrate with a variety of tools and equipment.
5. Enhanced security and compliance features
Safeguarding your patients’ Protected Health Information (PHI) requires an EHR with robust security features. In the past 5 years, ransomware attacks against healthcare organizations have more than doubled; medical practices of all specialties are common victims. The sensitive nature of patient’s health information means data breaches in healthcare are the most expensive of those in any industry.
An EHR for specialty practices should include advanced security protocols and compliance features that protect patient data and ensure that the practice meets all legal and ethical standards. Its security and compliance features also need to evolve to maintain compliance with the ever-changing landscape of legal requirements and escalating cyber threats.
Learn more about Veradigm EHR functions
Veradigm EHR is a comprehensive system designed for today’s ambulatory healthcare practices. For specialty practices, Veradigm EHR delivers specialty-specific content with hundreds of preloaded templates and protocols. It also adapts to your workflow patterns to ensure you have the most useful and efficient EHR system at your fingertips.
The specialty-specific content delivered with Veradigm EHR not only covers a wide range of specialties, but also extensively addresses all aspects of clinical documentation. This includes everything from exam templates and order protocols to clinical terminology for capturing a detailed past medical history.
Visit templates provide a one-click method for applying documentation for a complete encounter as a starting point, allowing providers to then quickly add the appropriate patient-specific details. Follow-up visits are also easily documented using visit templates, with the patient’s prior visit used as a template which can then be updated with the patient’s progress.
Adaptable, streamlined EHR functionality
Veradigm EHR also provides a complete set of tools for creating custom content, either by using the delivered specialty-specific content as a starting point or by creating new content from scratch. From templates to protocols to terminology, Veradigm EHR provides the flexibility to adapt its clinical content to meet the needs of a wide variety of specialties.
Resource and productivity constraints make ongoing training and adoption of new IT resources major obstacles for many practices. As a result, most clients implement only 15% to 20% of their EHR solution upon activation. However, at Veradigm, we take our role very seriously as a partner in your practice’s success. Understanding the importance of high-quality training, we offer a tailored program for optimal EHR education and optimization.
The Veradigm training program creates a culture of continuing education, adoption, and optimization for end users using a blended learning approach. We provide a structured training and workflow consultation program based on your practice’s goals for adoption and optimization.1
Annual training activities include assessment and onsite review; a customized curriculum based on assessment findings and driven by practice goals; both onsite and virtual role-based training; workflow optimization; and progress monitoring. Clients select training focus areas, such as basic adoption, advanced utilization, new feature adoption, revenue workflow, clinical workflow, regulatory performance, upgrade planning/training, and more.
The result? Smarter care, leading to the best clinical, financial, and operational outcomes for your practice.
Veradigm’s Ambulatory Suite solutions can provide your specialty with these must-haves and more! To learn more, schedule a demo today.