Proceed to EHR with caution, planning

Slowly but surely, providers are moving toward adoption of electronic health records (EHR) in hopes of cutting costs and reducing medical and billing errors. EHRs make auditors’ jobs easier by making records more readily available in one place. Before sinking a significant amount of money into an automated system, however, providers need to do their homework.

EHRs are “becoming a cost of doing business—so many hospitals are struggling with all the paper problems,” says Margret Amatayakul, MBA, RHIA, CHPS, president of Margret\A Consulting in Schaumburg, IL.