The Rheumatologist
COVID-19 News
  • Connect with us:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • Feed
  • Home
  • Conditions
    • Rheumatoid Arthritis
    • SLE (Lupus)
    • Crystal Arthritis
      • Gout Resource Center
    • Spondyloarthritis
    • Osteoarthritis
    • Soft Tissue Pain
    • Scleroderma
    • Vasculitis
    • Systemic Inflammatory Syndromes
    • Guidelines
  • Resource Centers
    • Axial Spondyloarthritis Resource Center
    • Gout Resource Center
    • Psoriatic Arthritis Resource Center
    • Rheumatoid Arthritis Resource Center
    • Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Resource Center
  • Drug Updates
    • Biologics & Biosimilars
    • DMARDs & Immunosuppressives
    • Topical Drugs
    • Analgesics
    • Safety
    • Pharma Co. News
  • Professional Topics
    • Ethics
    • Legal
    • Legislation & Advocacy
    • Career Development
      • Certification
      • Education & Training
    • Awards
    • Profiles
    • President’s Perspective
    • Rheuminations
    • Interprofessional Perspective
  • Practice Management
    • Billing/Coding
    • Quality Assurance/Improvement
    • Workforce
    • Facility
    • Patient Perspective
    • Electronic Health Records
    • Apps
    • Information Technology
    • From the College
    • Multimedia
      • Audio
      • Video
  • Resources
    • Issue Archives
    • ACR Convergence
      • Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Resource Center
      • Rheumatoid Arthritis Resource Center
      • Gout Resource Center
      • Abstracts
      • Meeting Reports
      • ACR Convergence Home
    • American College of Rheumatology
    • ACR ExamRheum
    • Research Reviews
    • ACR Journals
      • Arthritis & Rheumatology
      • Arthritis Care & Research
      • ACR Open Rheumatology
    • Rheumatology Image Library
    • Treatment Guidelines
    • Rheumatology Research Foundation
    • Events
  • About Us
    • Mission/Vision
    • Meet the Authors
    • Meet the Editors
    • Contribute to The Rheumatologist
    • Subscription
    • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Search
You are here: Home / Articles / Experts Offer Tips for Saving Time on Electronic Medical Records

Experts Offer Tips for Saving Time on Electronic Medical Records

April 15, 2020 • By Thomas R. Collins

  • Tweet
  • Email
Print-Friendly Version / Save PDF
peterfactors / shutterstock.com

peterfactors / shutterstock.com

ATLANTA—“Bane of our existence” and “pajama time”—the dreaded time spent at night catching up on documentation—are a couple of phrases associated with the electronic medical record (EMR). To try to ease the frustration and limit the amount of time physicians have to spend using the systems, two experts reviewed tools and tricks for Epic and Cerner, two of the most commonly used EMRs.

You Might Also Like
  • ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: Experts discuss the process of becoming “meaningful users” of electronic medical records
  • ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: Experts discuss the process of becoming “meaningful users” of electronic medical records
  • Electronic Medical Records Have Mixed Impact on Quality, Quantity of Healthcare
Explore This Issue
April 2020
Also By This Author
  • ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting 2012: New Treatments and Strategies Emerge for Osteoporosis

Their tips—presented in a session at the 2019 ACR/ARP Annual Meeting—included ways to speed ordering, communicate better and more easily prevent overprescribing of opioids.

ad goes here:advert-1
ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL TO CONTINUE

Eric Newman, MD, rheumatologist and director of rheumatology at Geisinger, discussed Epic, with which he’s worked for 19 years, including helping develop its rheumatology tools.

Epic Tips

Search: Dr. Newman asked 10 of his partners whether they knew about the search function—an “innocuous little box” in the upper-right corner—and only two did.

ad goes here:advert-2
ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL TO CONTINUE

“It’s extremely powerful,” he said. Type a word, and every instance in which it occurs will appear. Those results can be organized by notes, orders, labs or in other ways. If you need to know whether someone has had methotrexate toxicity at some point, for example, this is a good way to find out.

Custom filters: These can be created around departments, labs or other categories, Dr. Newman said, cutting through to what you actually want to see.

“There’s a lot of noise in electronic health records—when you’re looking for something you have to kind of wade through it to find that needle in the haystack,” and this is one solution, he said.

ad goes here:advert-3
ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL TO CONTINUE

Task-oriented smartsets: This is a way to combine disparate elements, such as documentation, ordering and diagnoses, in one place to complete a task.

APSO, not SOAP: Dr. Newman suggested putting the assessment and plan at the top of a note, ahead of the subjective and objective findings. This way, it’s easier to find the most important information—what you were thinking and what you wanted to do.

Dr. Newman suggested putting the assessment and plan at the top of a note, ahead of the subjective & objective findings.

Patient instructions: Make it a habit to leave patients with instructions on their care, Dr. Newman said, adding, “and the nice thing is, [you can] type it up for your patients, copy it and use it as your plan. [You] kill two birds with one stone.”

Reconsider sending FYI notes: “We have this innate habit that we want to communicate everything to everybody,” Dr. Newman said. “If you have a provider who’s in your electronic health record, stop sending them FYI notes. If they want to see your note, they can look for it. All you’re doing is clogging up their in-basket with noise, and the one time you actually want them to do something, they’re never going to read it.”

Nurse-scheduled telephone visits: These can be scheduled in Epic, allowing objective data to be collected. If a patient is doing well, a phone visit rather than an office visit can be done in three months, for example, while the in-person visit can happen in six months. If a patient is not doing particularly well, the phone visit can be a useful, interim touchpoint without forcing the patient to travel to an appointment.

Pages: 1 2 | Single Page

Filed Under: 2019 ACR/ARP Annual Meeting, Electronic Health Records Issue: April 2020

You Might Also Like:
  • ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: Experts discuss the process of becoming “meaningful users” of electronic medical records
  • ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: Experts discuss the process of becoming “meaningful users” of electronic medical records
  • Electronic Medical Records Have Mixed Impact on Quality, Quantity of Healthcare
  • Experts Offer Management Tips, from Contracts to Credentials to Audits

Simple Tasks

Learn more about the ACR’s public awareness campaign and how you can get involved. Help increase visibility of rheumatic diseases and decrease the number of people left untreated.

Visit the Simple Tasks site »

Meeting Abstracts

Browse and search abstracts from the ACR Convergence and ACR/ARP Annual Meetings going back to 2012.

Visit the Abstracts site »

Rheumatology Research Foundation

The Foundation is the largest private funding source for rheumatology research and training in the U.S.

Learn more »

The Rheumatologist newsmagazine reports on issues and trends in the management and treatment of rheumatic diseases. The Rheumatologist reaches 11,500 rheumatologists, internists, orthopedic surgeons, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, and other healthcare professionals who practice, research, or teach in the field of rheumatology.

About Us / Contact Us / Advertise / Privacy Policy / Terms of Use

  • Connect with us:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • Feed

Copyright © 2006–2022 American College of Rheumatology. All rights reserved.

ISSN 1931-3268 (print)
ISSN 1931-3209 (online)