There has been a ton of talk about federal mandates for Electronic Medical Record (EMR) adoption. The mandate discussion spills over from other programs and regulations such as PQRS. The deadline is set: 2014. In two short years, all medical professionals must be using an EMR of some kind or face business ending punishment. Right???

This scenario just isn’t the case and the language surrounding the ‘Mandate’ is part of the reason health professionals are failing at EMR implementation. They are very simply choosing the wrong products. Imagine stumbling across an EMR website that aims to strike fear into the hearts of its visitors by pasting the word ‘Mandate’ all over the site. As a clinic administrator you begin to break a sweat thinking of all the horrible consequences if you do not BUY NOW! All of the sudden, someone who hadn’t really considered the implications of an EMR is scheduling training for the entire staff. This scenario is almost doomed to failure lacking a major component crucial to success. The component is due diligence.

Before you even begin your research into an EMR you should first understand that there is no ‘Mandate’ in place. The federal government plans to slowly implement EMR into healthcare with the use of incentives. It is true that at some point down the road, you will be penalized for not using an EMR, but you will not face the type of life changing consequences that many currently assume will happen. This realization gives you time to do research and analyze the needs of your clinic, but not procrastanate.  If you find out what type of software will work best for your specific needs, you are much more likely to succeed with adoption by your therapists and clinic staff. And don’t feel as if you are the only ones without an EMR, right now only 24% of small health care practices have adopted EMR.  The APTA has resubmitted their plea to CMS to include Physical Therapists in those qualified for the EMR incentive program, but today PTs, OTs and SLPs do not qualify for any incentives with respect to EMR adoption.

With regard to PQRS (Physician Quality Reporting System), there is no mandate there either. CMS plans to deduct 1.5% of clinics collected Medicare payments in 2015 if they do not participate in the program by 2013.  There have never been any plans to make PQRS a mandatory requirement. Again, PQRS takes some careful consideration around workflow and staff support. It isn’t a great idea to just rush into it. You should make sure that your staff is involved in choosing the reporting measures and understands the documentation requirements for the measures chosen. Without these careful considerations, you may fail to meet the participation requirements and face fines in the future. The new information on the 2013 deadline from CMS makes this decision on PQRS participation a bigger priority on your due diligence time line.

The intersection of Government and Healthcare is mysterious and blurry. At WebPT, we field questions daily from a number of concerned therapists who consistently speak about a mandate. There is no reason to rush into a decision because you are afraid of what may come. The reasons to adopt EMR or participate in PQRS should be because of a desire to improve your practice and should only come after you have considered all of the important implications.

October is National Physical Therapy Month! That means that for an entire month the industry we love gets some attention from the media and the public. Awesome! This year, the APTA is focusing on sports injury prevention across the life span. For more official information about National Physical Therapy Month, check out this site by the APTA.

For us, it’s all about saying two simple words, “thank you.” Without getting all touchy-feely, we recognize that without all of our members, we wouldn’t be here. You matter to us. We appreciate your business and what you do to care for society. Many of us have personally benefited from the patience and expertise of physical therapists. We’ve been patients and/or many of our family members have benefited from physical therapy. So, thanks for all that you do.

To celebrate, we’ve put together a video campaign of WebPT employees (and even the village chiefs) sharing stories about physical therapy. They will make you laugh; they will make you cry (tissues please!). Make sure to check in each week for a new video.

Today we’re getting started with Jake, our Member Support Manager. Jake is Mr. Dedication. He’s up before the sun for our members (literally, he’s at the office at 5AM).

To kick off our National Physical Therapy Month campaign, watch this message from Jake to you:

WebPT Celebrates Physical Therapy Month 2011 from WebPT on Vimeo.

For all those of you social media tweeps, use the hash-tag #PTMonth on twitter to share in the social celebration. Also, check in with Move Forward PT for more info on physical therapy. Here’s to a great month!

Fits like a Glove?

A recent article assessing the effect of EMR Implementation on clinical productivity came to a rather common sense solution. The evaluation found that “different tools work better in different settings and that one-size-fits-all is not a valid approach to EHR implementation.” This finding is predictable and holds true in almost all applications. The interesting part of this article is where the assessment goes next. They go on to speak about usability and how they have attempted to create a very user-friendly experience. While usability can hinder your productivity, there is another factor that is just as, if not more important, than usability that most EMR vendors ignore. That aspect is specialization.

A majority of the vendors out there are used in different offices for many different disciplines. If they assert that a one size fits all solution isn’t the best way to go, then why are they offering that exact thing to their potential customers?

We have always been concerned with usability, but at the crux of our company is our focus on Physical Therapy as an industry.

Specialization leads to Usability

Our Documentation, clinical workflow, reporting, features, Etc. are all based on the needs of a Physical Therapy Practice. The specialization of WebPT allows us to eliminate many of the productivity issues right off the bat. The system was designed to mimic the flow of care in the office. At this point in the process of development is where you can see that specialization automatically leads to usability. If our most basic task is to build and EMR that is the best choice for physical therapists, we have to make sure that all of their needs are met. Usability is a piece to that puzzle.

I think the state of the EMR industry as it currently stands is missing the point when it comes to implementation. The conversations all revolve around usability, but that’s as far as they go. What about making a system that fits the needs of a particular discipline? Every medical specialty is different by nature and so EMR vendors need to realize that. We understand the needs of a very specific group of clinicians and seek to meet those needs 100%.

Choose Wisely

Other EMR vendors should realize that fitting every specialty into one EMR would kill productivity no matter how many meetings you have about usability. When searching for an EMR vendor, make sure to establish their focus on your profession or you might be left with one-size-fits-all software.