How EHR Systems Reduce Practice Costs
Electronic health records (EHR or EMR) provide a host of benefits for health practices. The upfront costs of an EHR may deter some practices, but incorporating an electronic system will offer incredible savings in the long run. Here are just a few ways transferring to an EHR will reduce costs for your practice:
1. Increase Efficiency
EHR systems allow you to increase efficiencies across the board. Access all important information in one place. Engage with patients and communicate via secure chat without having to change platforms. Quickly send bills directly to insurance and prescribe electronically. Since time is money, these efficiencies mean you’ll simultaneously be increasing savings for your practice as you create more effective processes.
2. Reduce Errors
A streamlined charting system allows you to create more accurate notes while seeing patients. The easy-to-use system allows everyone on your staff to enter clinical data correctly and avoid costly medical errors. You can also use data pulled from your EMR to learn potential risk areas for your practice.
If you need to clarify something in your charting or notes, you can easily message anyone in your practice or even message your patient. Reduced errors will eliminate costly mistakes and save you even more time, so you can see more patients and increase profits for your practice.
3. Limit Office Supplies
Printers, filing cabinets, ink, and other office supplies can be costly. EHR systems save you money by reducing the need for office supplies and freeing up space previously used to store medical records. Use the newfound space to add more exam rooms or desks for your staff. A smarter use of space will reduce costs over time. You’ll also reduce costs associated with chart pulling, storage, re-filing, and transcription.
4. Keep Data Safe
In today’s digital age, every practice should be concerned about cybersecurity. A hack could mean disastrous recovery costs for your practice, and an EMR system saves you money by offering unparalleled security that will significantly reduce the risk of a data breach or HIPAA violation. Data can be accessed anywhere in the world from a secure cloud system, so you won’t sacrifice accessibility for safety.
5. Scale With Ease
As your practice grows, you’ll need to find ways to scale your systems and processes. Scaling can cost your practice money, but electronic health records scale easily and efficiently. You’ll save money by being able to carry on with your same system as you grow. Your ability to scale will allow you to increase revenue more rapidly than if you were using standard paper medical records.
Start Saving Today
In reality, implementing an EHR system in your practice will have so many underlying benefits, the savings are difficult to quantify. These five points are just a few of the ways EHR systems can help reduce practice costs, but for your practice, there could be many more tangible savings.