I read a very interesting article today on whether or not physicians lose money when using EMR. I will sum up the article for you.
A physician’s time is worth protecting. It is critical and very important in regard to patient’s care. They have gone through many years of schooling and training. When they practice medicine, they require structure and tools to ensure that the majority of their time is spent on patient care, not documenting or typing.
Studies show that the average physician collects approximately $75 per hour. At this rate, each hour a week wasted on EMR documentation affects a facility’s bottom line. Let’s say a physician works 47 weeks out of the year. If 1 hour a week is spent unnecessarily documenting EMR, the total pay lost is over $3,500. Let’s say EMR for the physician takes 1 extra hour a day to complete, the loss of pay would be over $17,000 (per physician).
Interrupting a physician’s time can only hurt the facility’s bottom line. Remember that this is only taking into consideration the physician’s take-home pay. The physicians should be able to focus their time on patient care, not wasting their time on EMR.
I can’t imagine physicians chose their career to spend hours doing their own record documentation. There are some physicians who do very well with working in the EMR, but does it make any sense for a physician to be wasting their time on it. You know how the saying goes, “time is money.”
Thanks to http://medicaltranscriptionhelpdesk.com/physicians-lose-money-when-using-emr for submitting this.
