Wellington, FL -- (SBWIRE) -- 08/15/2012 -- Did you know that Medicare and Medicaid have already paid out $5 billion dollars for meaningful use through its EHR incentive programs? Hospitals have received $3.3 billion and other providers, $1.7 billion. Are you missing out? The EHR is an important tool for healthcare providers everywhere. In health systems with significant ambulatory activity and owned physician practices, an enterprise-wide system makes sense especially where patients move between physicians and many other services. HSMN has assisted healthcare organizations in developing EHR specification requirements for many years, facilitating the right match.

HSMN’s Chief Financial Officer explained that “the EHR is the tool that brings a comprehensive picture of the patient to the clinician.” The data contained within the system, supports the medical decision making process. The implementation of the EHR comes at a price; it takes time for entry, and protocols must be followed. Post implementation audits and corrections must then be carried out. The ability to have a sweeping look at a patient’s history and be able to share information with other clinicians focused on the same patient proves to be invaluable and serves the greater good.

The incentive provided under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act may in fact demotivate individual practices because of cost, training, maintenance and upgrade issues that are quite costly. Individual clinicians in private practice should consider criteria for the decision trail that leads to the Electronic Health Record Implementation. HMSN can assist in establishing these criteria. Important issues to address span from determining whether patient care experiences will be enhanced and the percentage of clean claim submissions increased to choosing a vendor that can integrate with the systems you already have and ensuring the availability of vendors for transition support. In addition, time and money invested in such systems ought to bring an increased return in both quality and revenue, HSMN can help you make these determinations.

Critical to the decision trail is having a strategic sense of where the practice is going and what it needs to be viable for growth. Without a strategic view, decisions tend to be based on immediate concerns. Therefore, individual practitioners should not even think about speaking with EHR vendors until they have established long term and short term goals. Vendors want to sell but cannot provide a strategic view for your practice, HSMN can. Please take a few moments to visit our website http://www.hsmn.com or call us at 866-908-4226.