As Jerri Cowper, a physician and the Ambulatory National Practice Director for the Innovative Consulting Group, writes on EHR Intelligence, the healthcare industry has become something of a frenzied mess lately. EHR compliance initiatives like Meaningful Use and ICD-10 have become an oftentimes confusing entanglement of dates, delays, software and codes. Even though these upgrades are meant to benefit physicians and their practices, it's the physicians who are being effectively "left in the dust" to constantly play catch up on figuring out what exactly they need, how to implement it and what advantages are supposed to be gained from these new programs.

To that end, Cowper has compiled a few handy tips — tailored for physicians — to not only understand the benefits of chiropractic EHR software, but also how to best optimize these digital recordkeeping practices so that they work for, and not against, clinics and hospitals:

• Reevaluate your office's hardware: The best chiropractic EHR software is only as good as the hardware it runs on. While some practices may choose to hang onto computers and other medical equipment well past their shelf life in an effort to save money, outdated hardware — and the inefficiency that leads to for software and, consequently, patient care records — can prove more costly than the price tag of any new machine.
• Take a second look at your exam room: Cowper notes that many physicians typically don't give the layout of their examination room any second thought. "Unfortunately how the examination room is set up and where physicians access their electronic devices in relation to their patients can affect the quality of their visit," writes Cowper. "The inability to have that connection with patients can ultimately result in non-compliance as well as cause a bottleneck in the physician's documentation of the visit."

Adopting the most up-to-date chiropractic EHR software package as part of your clinic's recordkeeping can facilitate improved diagnoses, reduced costs and overall better patient care experiences.