8 4 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • J a n u a r y 2 0 1 7
I
wish some-
body had told
me what I'm
about to tell
you about con-
verting paper charts to
electronic medical
records, had sat me
down and set me
straight about the
ABCs of EMRs.
Told me that adding an EMR will be a headache at first, no matter
which system you choose. That there will be a growth curve for our
nurses and doctors, steeper for some than for others. That it will be
challenging for a multispecialty center like ours — from pain to plas-
tic and most everything in between: GI, ortho, ENT and general —
that does 650 cases per month, to make everyone happy. That there
will be costly upgrades. That it will make certain things more efficient
(government reporting and QI studies) and other things less so (it can
take longer to chart a pain injection case than it does to perform one).
10 Things I Wish Someone
Had Told Me About EMRs
Potholes to avoid
as you head down
the paperless path.
Fawn Esser Lipp,
rn, BSn, CnOr, CaSC
Franklin, Wis.
SCREEN SIZE Be sure the screen size of your handheld computers is large enough
to display the entire EMR screen.
Pamela
Bevelhymer,
RN,
BSN
