An Electronic Medical Records Simulation Day

It's a good idea to host a pre-launch evaluation well before the real day to go live with electronic medical records (EMR). This simulation should go over every aspect of a day's operation at the clinic, including everything, from check-in to check-out. If your practice uses an electronic practice management (EPM) system, this test day should also test the integration between the EPM and EMR systems - including billing. Our practice set aside a single Saturday afternoon to hold the simulation. There, after hearing some groaning, we drew up a solid plan while others looked on with a critical eye. All hands were called to participate. With few exceptions, all the doctors and clinical staff were expected to be present. Office personnel assisted with check-in procedures, and other employees acted as mock patients in the simulation. All the staff members went to the place where they would begin work on a Monday - including the surgery room.

Our mock patients each received a diagnosis including a clinical history; this would recreate the processes within the EMR system. Some mock histories included one needing surgery, one on a follow-up visit, and another with an acute problem. This level of detail in the simulation lets your practice measure real-time effectiveness of the templates.

The entire network of practice locations should be accessing the EMR software at the same time. During this time, we searched for any system problems, making sure the network could handle the work with enough bandwidth to keep operations flowing. Did any system parts crash or cause problems? Mock patients should simply go through the same stages that a patient would in the same situation. EMR changes workflow in some unexpected ways. Many practices learn this on simulation day, in good time.

The surgery location must be able to access all of a patient's records, and these scenarios should be included as part of the test. Nurses should enter the patients' medical histories with the laptops, and surgeons should use EMR to check the patients' charts before selecting lenses for surgery. This test should be performed on a monitor in the operation room as well. At our practice, clinical supervisors met with the administration team at the end of the simulation; the purpose was to evaluate the performance of the system and the staff. Aside from a few minor glitches, the entire practice earned a passing grade. The doctors agreed that the few weekend hours spent at the practice were worth it, especially when considering the relief of stress which had been growing as the launch date neared.