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"Make it as easy as possible for patients to access," says Rosemary
Hagan, BSN, clinical director of the Orthopedic Surgery Center of the
North Shore in Peabody, Mass. "And if you convert to EMR, make
sure it's compatible."
That's something Donna Durden, MBA, administrator at the Murdock
Surgery Center in Port Charlotte, Fla., learned the hard way: "When it
comes to compatibility with your EHR, get it in writing. We were told that
our system was compatible. Turns out it was not. So we have to scan
each document into our EHR. Not ideal."
"Make sure the company delivers what it sells," echoes Anna
Lagsding, RN, director of nursing at Lakeside Surgery center in
Omaha, Neb. "It's been more difficult to customize the forms than
they said it would be. They wanted us to use other facilities' reports,
and they made it seem like a hassle when we wanted to change the
forms."
"Visit a facility that's using the application to make sure it works
how you want it to," says Jayne Hildebrand, MBA, CASC, CHFP, CPC,
business office manager at the Surgery Center of Cedar Rapids
(Iowa).
No miracles
Ultimately, say many, it's a question of knowing what to expect and of
maintaining perspective.
"Don't expect a miracle overnight," says Jenna Pon, ADN, BSN,
administrator at the Outpatient Surgery Center of La Jolla (Calif.) "It
takes time getting used to navigating through the system and familiar-
izing yourself with where to find certain information." "Have a time-
line and add a year to it," suggests another administrator. OSM
E-mail
jb urg er@outpatientsurg ery.net
.
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