Surgery EMR Software

Buyers Guide

Last updated: October 03, 2023

Surgery EHR software are designed to maximize the efficiency of surgical workflows How? That’s simple. Surgery EHR software are designed to reduce patient waiting time and streamline routine repetitive tasks. This guide is designed to help you understand the unique features of surgery EHR software. Here’s what we’ll be discussing in this buyer’s guide:

What is a Surgery EHR Software?

Surgery EHR Software Features

Choosing a Surgery EHR Vendor

Surgery EHR Software Benefits

What is a Surgery EHR Software?

Surgery EHR software are designed to focus on getting work done as effectively and efficiently as possible. This is why surgery EHR software are designed to improve the efficiency of surgical workflow. This helps streamline operations, lower costs and simplify clinical tasks. In addition, it also lowers waiting time for patients. This helps transfer patients to the surgery ward as quickly as possible. More than often, patients need immediate medical care and even a minute’s loss can be lethal.

A surgery EHR system for ambulatory surgery practices should be able to cater to the unique workflow requirement of the surgical workflows. Here, I’ll be going over the various features of a surgery EHR along with the requirements of selecting your EHR vendor for your practice.

Before jumping to EHR software, you must assess the needs, requirements, and capabilities of your practice. After all, a surgery practice doesn’t have surgeons for each medical field. So if a patient requires an urgent neurosurgeon, you’ll have to find the nearest neurosurgeon and check whether they’ll be able to attend to your patients or not. Similarly, the needs of an inpatient also differ greatly from an outpatient’s needs.

Here’s all you need to know to make the most of your surgery EHR software.

Surgery EHR Software Features

Here are some features of a surgery EHR software that help improve patient care, streamline your clinical workflows and simplify administrative tasks.

Surgery-Specific Templates - As a surgeon, having to deal with manually taking notes is a tiresome process.. That’s why your EHR software should include pre-built ambulatory surgery -specific templates such as:

• Adverse event Reporting
• Point & Click
• E&M Coding Assistance
• Document Management
• Patient Education
• Pre-op and Post-op processes

Surgery CPT & ICD-10 coding – Whichever EHR software you select for your practice should be capable of accurate and timely ICD-10 and CPT coding. Some EHR software allows practitioners to highlight their most frequently used codes, while others suggest codes on their own.

Patient Reminders – Your EHR software should also come equipped with patient reminder tools to help minimize no-shows for appointments.

Surgery Workflow Management - An effective surgery EHR software should be able to manage your clinical workflows and streamline your operations. The usual workflow of a surgery rehabilitation center include:

• First inquiry of patient
• Admission of patient
• Treatment(s) and therapies required
• Medication (if needed)
• Patient discharge
• Follow-ups

HIPAA Compliance - A surgery EHR software also needs to ensure patient information confidentiality and privacy through compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) guidelines.

Choosing a Surgery EHR Vendor

Now that we’ve discussed the necessary features of a surgery EHR, let’s talk about some of the requirements you’d need from your EHR vendor. These may differ for each individual medical practice.

Vendor Size – What type of practices does your EHR vendor typically cater to? Some EHR vendors only provide services to small-scale practices, while others cater to large-scale practices. Therefore, if you have a small practice, paying for services that help large practices, won’t do much good. Similarly, large practices won’t be able to function with services designed for small practices.

Design – The design of EHR’s infrastructure depends on your choice. Whether you would prefer a cloud-based, web-based, or even standalone EHR.

Web-based EHR: These companies focus on a web-based approach and practitioners can access their patient information through their web browser.

Stand-alone EHR: Although not quite popular as the others, this EHR is an on-premise EMR that can be accessed remotely through smartphones, iPads, etc. as long as you’re connected to your practice’s network.

Cloud-based EHR: Companies that provide native cloud EHR offer you to access patient information through a cloud-storage.

Certification – Vendor certification ensures patient information confidentiality and security and is perhaps one of the most important things to look for in a surgery EHR vendor. So make sure your vendor has ONC-authorized testing and certification body (ONC-ATCB) certification.

Most EHR vendors focus on providing cloud-based EHR services to enhance security and provide seamless services.

Surgery EHR Software Benefits

An effective EHR software helps streamline your clinical workflows, simplify administrative tasks, and help you reduce cost. Here are some of the most advantageous benefits of surgery EHR software.

• Ensure accurate and simplified note-taking process.
• Improve clinical workflow efficiency.
• Seamless insurance claims management and denied claims.
• Ensure compliance with healthcare regulations.
• Improve administrative efficiency by simplifying processes.