Now that you’ve determined that it would be in the best interest of your medical organization to start using electronic medical records software, you have a big task ahead of you. You’ll need to figure out which EMR software company you will wind up going with. The needs of your particular practice may differ greatly from those of the medical profession colleagues you might have considered consulting. It wouldn’t be suitable to ask friends what software they use if their preferred application isn’t relevant to your practice. Therefore, it pays to do some research to make sure you work with the most suitable EMR software company. Here are four things to look for to help guide your search.

Is your podiatry practice still getting by using some kind of paper-based system to keep track of and manage all your patient records? If so, you should know that electronic health records software will enable your staff to work much more productively, letting you process more patients faster. If you have already embraced the notion that software is beneficial to your practice but are just using general EHR software, you may not realize that a better solution exists in the form of a podiatry EHR system. As you are focusing on problems of the feet and ankles while diagnosing and treating patients, it makes sense to work with specialized EHR software for podiatry practices.

By now, it should not be a surprise for you to hear that the U.S. government has mandated that medical organizations must make the switchover from the International Classification of Disease code set 9 to the new ICD-10. After some badly needed extensions, the final deadline for completing the transition is October 1, 2015. Note that ICD codes are handled by the World Health Organization and are intended for use around the globe. Since medical groups have to get ready for the change (or they will be unable to work with providers and government programs going forward), it makes sense to wonder how you can get the most out of ICD-10 while saving on costs.

When you’re accustomed to using computers and specialized software to help you run your business, it’s hard to imagine what it was like to keep tabs on a busy medical practice before these tools were available. Companies that use the right software tools and work with them using the latest in computer technology stand to do much better in the marketplace than competitors that just try to get by with whatever is at hand, especially if it’s old or not very suitable for the task.

Patients place a great deal of trust in medical organizations, and when you are in charge of looking after the health and safety of a group of patients, you are also responsible for protecting their private and sensitive data. All the information you maintain on patients in your electronic health records software is valuable and quite appealing to criminals bent on breaking into the system. Data security is particularly important when it comes to healthcare since medical information in the wrong hands can ruin people’s careers and even destroy families. Patients are also vulnerable to identity theft and face having their bank accounts drained and credit destroyed if criminals can access their private information. With that in mind, here are four tips to help you strengthen your EHR security.

With more and more medical practices wanting to ditch their old-fashioned, paper-based systems in favor of software solutions to handle patient information, it’s no wonder that electronic health record applications are storing increasingly larger amounts of patient data. The more data that medical organizations amass, the more valuable it becomes. Whether you are still preparing to start working with electronic health records software or have already integrated the application with the rest of your computing infrastructure at your medical organization, you would be right to wonder how you can get the most out of your EHR data.

The following excerpt is from an article found on Healthcare Global. It was written by Joyce Morse. Hospitals and clinics are always striving to find new ways to accomplish the same goal—providing excellent patient care. One of the ways that is happening is through cloud-based electronic health record (EHR) systems. Electronic health records make it easier to access patient data and communicate with other members of the team. Using a cloud system has even greater benefits for the medical facility.

The following is an excerpt from EHR Intelligence. It was written by Vera Gruessner. There are a variety of issues healthcare professionals, providers, and payers are concerned about regarding the ICD-10 transition deadline. Last week, we discussed and dispelled some common myths that stakeholders have about the ICD-10 transition deadline. This week we will go over an additional five facts that address some typical questions and concerns about ICD-10 implementation.

The follow excerpt is from an article on iHealthBeat. The increased adoption of electronic health records and other health IT has improved patient safety, according to an issue brief by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, Health IT Analytics reports. The issue brief -- which is the first of four that ONC plans to publish by September 2015 -- examined four systematic literature reviews and various studies that show how health IT has influenced factors that affect patient safety.

Have you recently installed radiological information system software at your radiology practice? Or, are you preparing to implement a RIS application solution any time soon? Many radiology practices take to using RIS software because they realize the many benefits it confers, from scheduling patients to gaining easy access to scans and test results. But RIS software can be even more useful when you use it to make connections with other medical professionals. Here is why connecting your RIS software with your referring physician’s electronic health record software is a smart idea.