Medisoft and Tips for Meaningful Use Deployment and Compliance

We’re a couple of years into the #Meaningful Use incentives and deployment, but there are still practices out there getting caught up on the first couple of rounds. More importantly, it won’t be long before medical practices have to comply with many of the reporting conventions being tested out during the incentives rounds. Many practices have chosen Medisoft as their EMR of choice, in part because it is a certified full EMR for the meaningful use incentives. Whether you’re gearing up to grab some of the MU incentive money or simply want to take advantage of lessons learned from the deployment and rollout, these tips on how to make the most of the meaningful use experiment, adapted from an article by @IngaHISTalk can give you a good head start.

Use a Certified EMR

Medisoft Clinical is an affordable choice for smaller practices, but it contains all the bells and whistles that the big guys use. It has been certified as an EMR for meaningful use incentives.

Understand What You’re Getting from Your Vendor

Shop around. Medisoft EMR is available through many different vendors who often offer value-added services in addition to the software. Depending on the vendor you choose, you may have out-of-the-box reporting – the ideal for smaller practices – or you may have to write your own (or hire a knowledgeable consultant to write them for you.)

Make Sure Your EMR Is Properly Configured

You can’t build reports with data you’re not collecting. McKesson Medisoft has all the options required to collect the data you need for your reports, but you may have to enable some of them. Your Medisoft vendor should know what needs to be enabled and configured and can help you set up your installation properly. (Keep in mind that if you’re filing for the incentives, you need to report ALL the data required or you get nothing.)

Update Your Office Procedures for Collecting Demographic Data

Demographic data is a sensitive area, and it should be treated accordingly. Make sure that your office’s process for collecting that data respects your patients’ privacy while ensuring that you get all the necessary data. It’s also a good time to update other policies, such as essential medical data collection, HIPAA policies and allergy/medication information.

Decide How You’ll Provide Electronic Patient Records to Your Patients

There are multiple ways to provide a patient’s records to him or her, including access through a Web portal, burned to a CD or DVD or recorded on a thumb drive. Medisoft offers a Web-based option that is continuously updated whenever new information is entered into a patient chart, making it an ideal choice.

This is just a quick overview of ways you can make your adoption of Meaningful Use criteria less painful. Your Medisoft vendor can offer many other hints, tips and tricks to make your life easier.