EON Systems Free Webinar: Choosing EHR Software for Ease of Use

CLEARWATER, FL, May 27, 2011 (Press-News.org) With government incentives for chiropractors and other "eligible professionals" to purchase Electronic Health Record software that meets the government's criteria, one starts to wonder if such certified software is little more than a lure into the lion's den.

Forty-four thousand dollars sounds good for purchasing some certified software, but wait—there's more! A chiropractor has to follow certain procedures to meet the "meaningful use" standards. And how much does that cost?

Let's think about this. One starts gathering data that was never needed before and some of which is still not needed now. Then get it entered into the computer system. Who is going to do that? How much do they need to be paid? Then update that data every reporting period, which is annually--costs money!

Now some software vendors have taken the quick route to getting certified. They just make sure it meets the rules, at what horrendous cost? Up to twenty thousand dollars in some cases. The software is not designed to give a practitioner ease of use or more complete functions. They just added more menus or more pop-up screens to take you around the houses and after all that, not all the functions are actually usable yet. They just need to have the potential for future use.

This is only talking about stage 1 certification. What hasn't been promoted yet are the extra costs a chiropractor will undoubtedly end up paying for stage 2 now that they are locked into the software. And how much will it cost to follow the procedures required for that? I doubt that the government intends you to make a profit out of such incentives. Only the certifying bodies are doing that.

It is all a little confusing as the rules keep changing. How does one make a sensible decision as regards what software to buy? Well, there is a simple answer according to the CEO of EON Systems, Derek Greenwood (http://www.dereksblog.com). "When you purchase software it should make it easier to get the job done. If it doesn't, then it can cost you a lot more than any incentives."

How does a chiropractor choose the software that will do best in their practice and, as Greenwood says, make it easier to get the job done? After all, what chiropractors and other private healthcare professionals really want is to see more patients, or reduce the time spent on documentation so they can get more done or just get home at night. How much money is that kind of software worth? If five minutes per visit was saved and there were 100 visits per week, that shaves eight hours and twenty minutes off the workload. At say $160 per hour, $1,280 was just saved in a week-- more than the government incentive. It is an enormous amount more than the cost of the software. Sounds like it could be smart to choose software that really streamlines one's office.

Greenwood has been giving free lectures, seminars and webinars on this subject for many years. He has just returned from his annual visit to Palmer College where he lectures students on this subject. In the last two years he has given around 25 webinars on the subject of "How to Choose Software in the New EHR World." Attended by scores of people, this directs them to the sensible way to buy sensible software.

The webinar is free and does not tout any one software product, but gives down-to-earth tips on what to look for and what to avoid. For more information, call (800) 955-6448 or visit http://www.best-investment.eonsoftwaresolutions.com and click on the link at the bottom of that page to register for the webinar.

EON Systems develops billing, scheduling and EHR software for chiropractors, physical therapists and other multi-disciplinary practices.