Geriatric EMR Software Buyers Guide
Last updated: June 07, 2023
A Guide to Help You Make the Right Decision
Geriatric healthcare refers to long-term care for the elderly in a home or hospice environment. It requires dealing with post-acute or long-term pain for the elderly. In the case of a hospice setting, practitioners work on reducing the pain suffering of patients by providing them with physical as well as emotional support. So a Geriatric EHR solution comes equipped with tools that simplify a practitioner’s job.
Generally, a Geriatric EHR solution is used in old-age homes, rehabilitation centers, along with a skilled nurse settings. This EHR solution offers practice management, e-prescriptions, electronic record management, billing, and scheduling services. In this guide, we are going to walk through certain features that you need to look out for while buying a Geriatric Electronic Health Record Software (EHR).
What to Expect from Your EHR Solution?
When you decide to begin your search for a Geriatric EHR Software, you might come across some average ones and some good ones as well. If you’ve selected an EMR software for purchase, make sure it offers these basic services.
User-Friendly Experience: A user-friendly interface can simplify tasks for your staff and help them be more productive.
Integration: The EMR solution you choose should easily be able to integrate with your existing system, regardless of the device you’re using. In the US, Apple devices are quite popular, but there are people with other systems as well, such as Android, Windows, Linux. So your EHR solution should offer compatibility with most of these platforms.
Always Available for Support: When implementing a new solution, you might run into problems, which is completely normal. With the right support from your EMR solution vendor, you can overcome any problem you face during implementation and even afterward.
You can also ask your vendor to provide you with a Geriatric EHR/EMR Software Demo to make sure you’re making the right choice.
What to Look For in Geriatric EMR Software
Here are some features you must make sure are offered by the Geriatric EMR solution you choose.
Medical Billing: Medical billing automates your entire billing process to help you process payments faster. You can also verify a patient’s insurance data in real-time.
EHR Integration: EHR integration allows easy and seamless integration with your current system or EHR software.
Medical Codes: Your EHR solution should come equipped with ICD-10, HCPCS, and CPT codes to save your time.
Colour Coding: Colour-coded patient schedules provide an easy approach to check individual patient information.
The geriatric EMR software should also include e-prescribing tools which offer:
Prescription Generator: Practitioners can write prescriptions directly from the EHR system in a few minutes. You can send these prescriptions directly to the pharmacy and to the patients as well.
Medication Selection: This provides practitioners with a unique opportunity of choosing between various brands while searching for a specific medicine for a patient.
Refills: Patients can send a refill request to the practitioner, who can approve and send the prescription to the pharmacy in a few minutes.
Guide for Choosing a Geriatric EHR Vendor?
Features are one part of the play when implementing your Geriatric EHR software. You also have to choose the right vendor. Why does that matter? A vendor that provides EHR solutions to small scale practices, would never be able to serve a large scale practice and vice versa.
Now that you know what kind of features you need to look for, it’s time to discuss what type of Geriatric EHR software vendor you should select for your medical practice.
Vendor and Practice Size – Firstly, you need to understand which size of companies your vendor typically aims for. After that, you need to analyze the scope of your practice as well. If you have a large facility, you wouldn’t want to select an EHR vendor that only deals with small practices. Typically, the vendors that cater to more extensive facilities have a high-cost Geriatric EMR software.
Vendor Certification – This is probably the most important aspect before selecting an EMR vendor for your practice. You need to make sure your vendor is ONC-authorized testing and certification body (ONC-ATCB). Selecting a non-certified vendor will only bring you trouble and a nuisance to your practice.
System Design – This will probably depend on whether you want to install a Geriatric EMR software on-site in your server, or use a cloud-based one. Although you’ll get more advantages with a cloud-based solution, it probably boils down to your personal preference. Whatever you choose, you’ll need to find an EMR vendor that provides the service you are looking for.
Even after making a final decision, you should use a Geriatric EMR software demo or check out a Geriatric EHR software guide to make sure it is exactly what you’re expecting.
What’s the Final Step?
After you’ve understood all the features and decided on a few potential vendors, you can compare the Geriatric EMR software pricing. When you reach a vendor that’s providing you with all the services, features, support and the Geriatric EMR software’s cost is also to your liking, you can take the final step and move towards implementation.
Before making your decision, it is essential to understand how every provider and practice workflow is unique. For this reason, a provider that may work for one may not exactly suit the other. Therefore, software experts and industry specialists are an ideal source of information, advice, and ultimately ensuring that the right decision is made.
I wouldn’t tell you which Geriatric EMR System is best, that’s for you to decide based upon your practice’s needs. But I hope now you have enough information to make the right decision.
