By David Stern / Special to Healthcare Facilities Today

In this era of mandated electronic medical records (EMR), providers should remember three key factors when choosing a system for their urgent care center: urgent care EHR/EMR software has to be easy to learn, enable you to see patients quickly, and work to improve quality. 

Healthcare facilities and urgent care centers today are trying to set themselves apart and build patient volume in highly competitive suburban markets, where they face not only other urgent care competitors but emerging competitors in telemedicine, retail clinics, extended hours primary care, freestanding emergency rooms, and other options. 

Improving quality of care

The federal government continues its push toward value-based and alternative reimbursement models with 90 percent of Medicare payments to be directly tied to quality measures by 2018. Thus far, urgent care has limited experience with risk and capitated models. The landscape is quickly changing, however, with hospitals seeking urgent care partners and acquisitions.  Anticipating the need for urgent care to affiliate with accountable care organizations, integrated health systems, and other provider groups, centers must invest in health intelligence and technology systems compatible with value-based fee structures and disparate delivery models. Integrating an ideal EHR/EMR customized to the individual organization is no longer optional to remain competitive and solvent. Urgent care must consider what’s ahead.

There are distinct advantages to adopting a fully integrated EHR relating to medical outcomes and patient satisfaction.

• Efficient reporting and performance monitoring through the CMS Shared Savings Program – enhanced IT supporting consumers, payers and providers via analytical tools and resources relieves financial and human capital burdens.

• Seamless integration of data collection and distribution helps coordinate care, regardless of where a patient receives treatment. End-to-end seamless integration facilitates faster registration, efficient referrals and consultations, results sharing, and patient education.

• Better claims processing through the EHR/EMR fosters stronger relationships with third-party vendors processing claims.

• Boost health care provider success through an infrastructure designed to enable effective information sharing among providers, testing facilities, consumers and regulatory agencies.

How does your EMR stack up? 

As the name implies, urgent care centers appeal to consumers who want immediate attention for non-emergent medical conditions. Their time is valuable. When patients choose an urgent care center for an episodic medical condition, they expect to have the medical reason for their visit resolved the first time, with minimal wait times and administrative hassle in registration, triage, check-out, and billing.

The right urgent care EMR can help boost revenue by increasing feet through the door at your clinic and ensuring proper coding to maximize payments.

The best EMR systems on the market allow clinicians to document a patient visit in two minutes or less, so patients can cycle through the center promptly. Any good system will be automated, with real-time E&M coding recommendations to capture all the revenue they’re entitled to. And because urgent care centers commonly use part-time providers, the system should be user-friendly and require minimal training.

Making the investment

While rigorous, value-based standards may be seen by some in the health care industry as just another "pay now, or pay later" agency strategy, EHRs do have the potential to help providers streamline operations, facilitate faster reimbursements and support patients who want to proactively manage their health. 

The key is to successfully exploit the technology is using clinical data to drive performance goals, whether those goals are focused on clinical outcomes, patient satisfaction, or financial success.

Urgent care clinicians will attest: You get what you pay for when it comes to EHR/EMR technology. And choosing the software is a big decision. 

Invest wisely. 

David Stern is one of the founders of Practice Velocity, a software development company that specializes in the urgent care industry.