EMR Success Stories - Franklin Dermatology Specialists

Location

Franklin, Tennessee

Number of EMR Users

Eight (8) physicians (including PAs), and twelve (12) clinical and support staff.

EMR Adoption Story

FDS had a PM system in place for several years, but never an EMR system. Attracted mainly by the federal dollars available for EMR adoption, FDS began its investigation of EMR systems in 2009. Mary Teske, FDS' Office Manager, comments further.

"Over the years, the issue of EMR came up several times. However, we never made any progress toward EMR adoption because of limited time and resources to devote to such a project. But the Stimulus Act changed that. With the dollars being made available, we felt we had to at least look into our EMR options. I can say also that we were concerned about integration issues associated with EMR. In other words, we had years of patient information in our PM system, and we were concerned about the cost of converting that information over to a new system, including error issues."

"Long story short, we implemented a new EMR solution in late 2009. We had our share of learning curve issues, but the effort has paid off. Even the less technically-savvy members of our organization can use the system with very little "extra" support. It's incredible to think back on how much time we literally wasted on ministerial tasks like charting. Our EMR system makes charting a breeze. We don't even have a separate charing "process" anymore. It's all accomplished automatically, behind the scenes, so to speak."

Were We to Do It Over Again

"My message to other physician groups and clinics would be this. One, don't be afraid of EMR. EMR is your friend. Second, don't over-emphasize the data conversion issues. In our case, that part was a breeze. And third, don't underestimate the training phase. Although you're doing the same things you did with paper charting, it does take time to learn your new EMR system. Were we to do it over again, we would run paper and EMR side-by-side for 3, 4 or 6 months, instead of just 1 month as we did."

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