• Home
  • Practice Focus
    • Facial Plastic/Reconstructive
    • Head and Neck
    • Laryngology
    • Otology/Neurotology
    • Pediatric
    • Rhinology
    • Sleep Medicine
    • How I Do It
    • TRIO Best Practices
  • Business of Medicine
    • Health Policy
    • Legal Matters
    • Practice Management
    • Tech Talk
    • AI
  • Literature Reviews
    • Facial Plastic/Reconstructive
    • Head and Neck
    • Laryngology
    • Otology/Neurotology
    • Pediatric
    • Rhinology
    • Sleep Medicine
  • Career
    • Medical Education
    • Professional Development
    • Resident Focus
  • ENT Perspectives
    • ENT Expressions
    • Everyday Ethics
    • From TRIO
    • The Great Debate
    • Letter From the Editor
    • Rx: Wellness
    • The Voice
    • Viewpoint
  • TRIO Resources
    • Triological Society
    • The Laryngoscope
    • Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology
    • TRIO Combined Sections Meetings
    • COSM
    • Related Otolaryngology Events
  • Search

Implementing an Electronic Medical Records System-You Can Do It

by Sue Pondrom • January 1, 2007

  • Tweet
  • Email
Print-Friendly Version

Implementation of an electronic medical records (EMR) system is neither a fast nor a simple process. For some practices it takes years to get physician buy-in, make a decision, train staff and convert to digital records.

You Might Also Like

  • Electronic Health Records: The National Perspective
  • Do Electronic Health Records Deserve to Get a Bad Rap?
  • Deadline Looms for ENTs to Put Electronic Health Records to Meaningful Use
  • Electronic Health Records Pros, Cons Debated by Otolaryngologists
Explore This Issue
January 2007

Texas Ear, Nose & Throat Specialists in Houston looked at EMRs for three years and almost bought products on two separate occasions.

We backed off, like on the eve of the wedding, said practice administrator Louise Eddy. No matter how good the product looked, if we couldn’t make this work for our physicians, we knew it would fail.

Finally, the 25-physician practice found an EMR system that provided an integrated audiology component and an ENT-customized progress note that was easy to edit and complete. If it’s too hard, you can’t get anybody to do it, Ms. Eddy said.

Her practice and others have also discovered that an EMR system is not cheap. While some physician groups have paid per-physician fees of $5,000 to $18,000 to implement the system and $1,000 to $3,500 annually for customer service, a 2005 study in the journal Health Affairs puts the cost even higher. The journal estimated $44,000 per physician in initial costs and $8,500 per physician in yearly maintenance expenses.

Numerous studies have shown that cost is the biggest reason for low adoption rates. And yet, most practices who successfully implement an EMR system report a return on investment (ROI) anywhere from a few months to a couple of years. On a national level, an estimated $80 billion could be saved annually with an EMR system, according to studies by Health Affairs and the RAND Corporation.

You have to look at the expense over time, said Ronald Kuppersmith, MD, of Texas ENT & Allergy in College Station. A lot of people look at the numbers and say ‘this is a lot of money; I don’t make that much.’ But you have to compare it to your existing costs. In our situation, just by eliminating dictation, we paid for the software licenses.

D. Thomas Upchurch, MD, Chief Medical Officer of the EMR company AllMeds, said most practices see a return on investment in six to seven months. If somebody’s not that busy in their practice, they won’t make money on the EMR initially, he added. It’s done by saving costs at several levels and helping the doctor see one or two more patients every day. What every group should do is run a very careful return on investment analysis before putting in a system.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 | Single Page

Filed Under: Articles, Features, Tech Talk Issue: January 2007

You Might Also Like:

  • Electronic Health Records: The National Perspective
  • Do Electronic Health Records Deserve to Get a Bad Rap?
  • Deadline Looms for ENTs to Put Electronic Health Records to Meaningful Use
  • Electronic Health Records Pros, Cons Debated by Otolaryngologists

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The Triological SocietyENTtoday is a publication of The Triological Society.

Polls

Have you invented or patented something that betters the field of otolaryngology?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...
  • Polls Archive

Top Articles for Residents

  • Applications Open for Resident Members of ENTtoday Edit Board
  • How To Provide Helpful Feedback To Residents
  • Call for Resident Bowl Questions
  • New Standardized Otolaryngology Curriculum Launching July 1 Should Be Valuable Resource For Physicians Around The World
  • Do Training Programs Give Otolaryngology Residents the Necessary Tools to Do Productive Research?
  • Popular this Week
  • Most Popular
  • Most Recent
    • The Dramatic Rise in Tongue Tie and Lip Tie Treatment

    • Otolaryngologists Are Still Debating the Effectiveness of Tongue Tie Treatment

    • The Road Less Traveled—at Least by Otolaryngologists

    • The Best Site for Pediatric TT Placement: OR or Office?

    • Rating Laryngopharyngeal Reflux Severity: How Do Two Common Instruments Compare?

    • The Dramatic Rise in Tongue Tie and Lip Tie Treatment

    • Rating Laryngopharyngeal Reflux Severity: How Do Two Common Instruments Compare?

    • Is Middle Ear Pressure Affected by Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Use?

    • Otolaryngologists Are Still Debating the Effectiveness of Tongue Tie Treatment

    • Complications for When Physicians Change a Maiden Name

    • Leaky Pipes—Time to Focus on Our Foundations
    • You Are Among Friends: The Value Of Being In A Group
    • How To: Full Endoscopic Procedures of Total Parotidectomy
    • How To: Does Intralesional Steroid Injection Effectively Mitigate Vocal Fold Scarring in a Rabbit Model?
    • What Is the Optimal Anticoagulation in HGNS Surgery in Patients with High-Risk Cardiac Comorbidities?

Follow Us

  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • The Triological Society
  • The Laryngoscope
  • Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Cookies

Wiley

Copyright © 2025 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved, including rights for text and data mining and training of artificial technologies or similar technologies. ISSN 1559-4939