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Electronic Health Records Conversion Of My 20 Year Old Medical Practice

by on March 10, 2011 in Miscellaneous

This week my 20 year old, 13,000 plus patient dermatology practice is moving from paper  to electronic health records; computerized charting, billing, prescription writing, lab results processing, office communicating….. office everything!

We’ve jumped and it’s a free fall……..

Learning how the software’s ‘logic’ works, loading in what we need based on its ‘logic’….. and then finding it!

OMG, I had no idea how hard this would be.  And it has to be done in just 5 days!  It’s the EHR-conversion, mix-master vortex nightmare…..

When I grasped the gravity of this absurd time line I had the visceral reaction you get when traumatized.  I just didn’t get how big this was until…. I mean, we were already part there.  We use computerized scheduling, billing, inter-office communication.  We’re tech literate, not afraid of computers….. but EHR conversion is so much bigger.  I expected it to be hard,  but I had no idea…. Dr. Chattha my associate said it best yesterday, “we’re going through the Kubler-Ross steps of grieving”.  And that’s after the shock of a trauma.

Were in a free fall,

letting go,

still pretty ‘deer in the headlights’.

Letting go of tactile charts and ink pens….. understood, easy to use, fast, visible.

And we’re hoping. Hoping we understand the software, have loaded the software with what we need, that we’ve predicted those needs…….. and that we can find them when we need them, while the patient is here, while we’re doing our good job being their dermatologist…………….

Oh, it’s huge,

was it a mistake?

It’s too late to look back.

We’re working fast, furiously and in a scramble.  EHR needs to work by Monday.

Needless to say, we are closed for the week.  It’s 15 hour days for my staff and I.  We look like a ‘rummy’ group cramming for final exams.  Wish us luck, and send those guardian angles if you can.

Photo attribution: Flikr

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4 Responses to “Electronic Health Records Conversion Of My 20 Year Old Medical Practice”

  1. rlbates March 10, 2011 at 8:28 am #

    Wishing you luck!

  2. Cynthia Bailey MD March 10, 2011 at 5:38 pm #

    Thanks! CBMD

  3. Kathy Krause March 11, 2011 at 5:30 pm #

    Sending bunches of angles your way. In fact, you all are angles already!!!!

  4. Cynthia Bailey MD March 12, 2011 at 9:58 am #

    Hi Kathy,
    We survived, but what a week. The transition will take time because charting with the system is so complex. Unfortunately we will still have to use paper chart notes during office hours and Dr. Chattha will stay even later than normal entering the information into the electronic record. Hopefully we will become facile with it quickly, but, oh boy, lots of fun ahead for us.

    Thanks for the angels!
    Cheers,
    Cynthia Bailey MD