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Hiring a medical scribe has made implementing Athena's EHR systemmuch easier for Andrew W. Garner, MD , a solo family practitioner in Glens Falls, New York. Creating and maintaining a patient's medical chart is the scribe'sprimary function, a task made possible with medical anddocumentation training. "It is helping tremendously," he says."Doctors need help with documentation, and I see the scribe systemas the way to do it." [RELATED: EHR Best Practices Study aims to gather real-world data, solutions Survey documents EHR implementation costs Announcing our EHR Study Meet the physicians ] Garner says his scribe adds to the EHR data gathered from patientswhile they are in the exam room. "It's basically livetranscription," he says. "It takes the burden of transcription offof you and makes you more efficient." Templates in the EHR are another time-saver. "I use templates sothe scribe knows what information I want her to extract," he says."The vendor [developed] them, but I tweak them." Garner says that learning an entirely new system makes him feel asif he's back in medical school. "Between running my practice, goingthrough the training modules, and customizing my templates, I'vebeen working 80 hours a week since fall. It's just now starting toget a little easier," he says. "With all the information in theEHR, I'll start enjoying some benefits. Right now, it is delayedgratification, just like medical school." Garner admits that much of the first 3 months of the implementationprocess was spent transferring patient charts from paper tocomputer. He recommends hiring somebody to do the job or spreadingthe work among employees if feasible. After the patient's past medical history is in the system, heconfirms its accuracy. "The night before the appointment, I spend 5or 6 minutes on each patient's chart, double-checking it and addinginformation that is in my head that I want to get in the EHR." The process is not without its problems, however. Garner often runsbehind schedule, something he says he has never done before. Afterhe apologizes and explains that extra time is needed to check thedata in the computer, patients understand. "I tell them this firstvisit is the hard one and it will get better," he says. "Thisimpacts the patient's time, too." Now that he has a scribe at his side, Garner's ultimate goal is tosee more patients. "Right now, we're still getting our grove onwith the EHR," he says. "As I cycle patients through, it's going toget noticeably better." ALSO IN THE SERIES Doris Tummillo, MD: Adding decades of data worth the effort James Borges, MD: Progress means changing workflow Melissa Lucarelli, MD: Reaching meaningful use in 2012. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as Carton Flow Racking Manufacturer , Drive-in Pallet Racking, and more. For more , please visit Double Deep Racking today!
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