Depending upon your particular situation,
you may find that one or more of the following apply.

1. Save Money Currently Spent on Office Overhead
   • Eliminate Transcription Costs
   • Eliminate costs for Paper Charts
     • Cost of paper itself
     • Cost for employees pulling and filing charts
       • Cost and liabilities of looking for and transfer of lost charts
     • Cost of storage of paper charts
     • Cost of destruction of paper charts
   • Save time telephoning patients with their lab / radiology reports, since they can view them online.
   • Allow patients to fill out their past history on-line, or in a kiosk in the waiting room, minimizing my staff expense in obtaining this information.
   • Allow patients to make and modify their appointment schedules online, thereby minimizing staff expense for scheduling.
   • Minimize the number of telephone lines required in the office because much of the office/patient interaction will occur via the Internet.
2. Increase Reimbursement for Services I perform
   • Allow me to code properly
     • Allow me to code the highest level that the EMR will permit, without fear of an audit
       • Medical Economics magazine has estimated that physicians who routinely down-coded one E&M level to avoid audits, lost up to $40,000 annually.
     • Prompt me regarding what additional features are required of a note to allow me to code at a higher level.
     • Assist me in defending myself in the event of an audit.
   • Offer comprehensive documentation which allows me to justify higher coding levels.
     • This can frequently be accomplished because much of the documentation is generated rather easily, such as Family History, Past Medical History, etc.
   • Prevent me from performing medical services without billing for them.
     • Avoid lost superbills
     • Avoid failure to code for ancillary services performed
   • Allow me to apply for enhanced revenue from various payers associated with higher quality care (e.g. DOQ-IT)
   • Allow me to bill for email consultations with patients
   • Allow me to participate in medical research studies, if I wish to do so
   • Allow me to have medical data which will be valuable to research companies
3. Assist with electronic billing
   • Medical records are already in an electronic and thereby easy to transmit format.
   • Billing is already correlated with the medical records, and in a format appropriate for electronic billing.
4. Enhance My Reputation in the Medical Community
   • Allow me to have fewer complications and treatment errors.
   • Allow me to provide more comprehensive documentation to my Referral Sources
   • Allow me to provide Referral Reports in a more timely fashion
   • Allow me to be seen as a leader in technology
   • Allow me to provide information produced in my office concerning my patients to other physicians electronically, thus increasing their confidence in me.
   • Allow me to be part of the Continuity of Care Record which is being promoted so vigorously by the U. S. Government.
5. Allow me to have more free time.
   • Allow me to complete my documentation in a shorter period of time, once accustomed to using an EMR.
   • Allow me to operate my office with fewer staff members, thus saving time on human resources issues relating to employees.
6. Lower national healthcare expenditures.
   • It has been estimated that as much as 30% of laboratory studies are repeated needlessly, because the requesting physician was unaware that the result already existed.
   • It has also been estimated that as much as $131 Billion can be saved annually in the United States by a universal implementation of EMRs.
7. Allow me to connect directly with laboratory and radiology facilities.
   • Allow Lab and Radiology results to automatically populate my patient chart
   • Allow me to have abnormal laboratory results flagged automatically, alerting me to issues which need to be addressed immediately.
8. Allow me to incorporate findings from ‘ancillary’ equipment, such as ‘scopes’, EKG, Ultrasound etc., directly into my office chart.
   • Minimize or eliminate duplication of documentation from other medical equipment, such as cardiac catheterization, etc.
   • Allow full video to be part of the medical documentation on my patients.
9. Allow me to connect directly with Pharmacies
   • Allow me to be certain that the prescription that I am providing to my patient is available in the pharmacy, is within my patients insurance plan’s formulary, affordable for my patient.
   • Allow the Pharmacy to have earlier notification of the prescription so that my patient will have a shorter wait once they enter the pharmacy.
10. Assist me with HIPAA compliance
    • Maintain confidentiality of my patient records.
    • Automatically maintain multiple levels of security, access, etc. to my records.
    • Minimize the exposure due to charts left inadvertently in accessible areas.
11. Allow Me to Provide Better Patient Care
    • Pharmaceutical Related
      • Prevent Dosage Errors
      • Prevent Handwriting misrecognition
      • Prevent medication conflict with allergies
      • Prevent medication conflict with other medications
      • Prevent medication conflict with medical conditions
      • Prevent medication conflict with family history (ex: Malignant Hyperthermia.)
    • Clinical Guidelines
      • Allow me to treat patients according to current clinical guidelines.
    • Patient Education
      • Appropriate printed instructions in the patient’s language
      • Allow patients to participate online with their chronic illness care, including keeping the patients apprised of their current medical condition
12. Keep in Touch with My Patients via the Internet
    • Allow my patients to view their medical history online
    • Allow my patients to view their lab / radiology, etc. results online
    • Allow my patients to schedule appointments online
13. Teach My Patients about their Medical Conditions
    • Offer language appropriate pamphlets to patients as they leave the office.
    • Offer online tutorials to my patients concerning their medical conditions
14. Be ‘Politically Correct’
    • President Bush has indicated that he wants to have every citizen’s medical record maintained within an Electronic Health Record within 10 years of 2004.
    • There are many other major initiatives promoting nationwide adoption of Electronic Medical Records.
15. Continue My Medical Education by teaching me
    • Viewing the prompts during documentation of a patient visit will allow me to understand what the medical community feels is most appropriate in treating various conditions.
    • Notify me of new medications, dosages, complications, etc.
16. Malpractice Exposure
    • Lower the Exposure due to misdiagnosis
    • Lower the Exposure due to treating outside of current clinical guidelines
    • Lower the Exposure that exists because of lost charts
    • Lower the Exposure due to improper documentation
17. In the event of a drug recall, such as with Vioxx, recently, using an EMR will allow you to immediately, and automatically contact each of your patients who is currently taking a recalled medication.
18. Marketability of practice
    • In the event that you wish to hire another physician, or sell your practice having an EMR, and having all of your patient data on an EMR can make the transition for a new physician easier, and therefore may make your practice more valuable.
19. Let you communicate more freely with other physicians through the interconnectivity allowed in various EMRs.