How Will EMRs Change Healthcare Staffing?

With the staunch support of federal policymakers, electronic medical records (EMRs) are on their way. In the next two years, the U.S. government will be paying out billions of dollars to healthcare organizations to integrate their current medical record systems, which in many cases now include both paper and paperless applications.  There is no question that EMRs offer benefits to the physician who will be able to get a convenient, comprehensive view the patient’s medical history. It will also mean greater portability. For instance, when a primary care physician makes a referral to a specialist, it will be easier to send the patient’s chart, lab reports, radiology scans and other information to the specialist.

However, the move to EMR will be expensive for healthcare organizations. Forrester Research expects spending to reach $50 billion in the U.S. health-information market over the next two years. Most of the cost will be one-time capital investments in new hardware, applications and networking technology. That includes the time and expense of digitizing paper records. But money will also be needed to train both medical and non-medical staffers in new policies and procedures.

In addition, solo practitioners, physician groups, hospitals and other providers may find it necessary to engage healthcare staffing firms to handle the increased workload during the transition period. From our perspective, it makes sense to treat the conversion to EMRs as a short-term project with appropriate staffing.  That allows the work to be done close at hand under the organization’s direct supervision.  All Medical Personnel stands ready to assist our clients in this process.