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I can't say enough about the fact that,
when we started working on this, I dreaded calls
to a governmental agency with questions.
I just thought "I'll be on hold,
I won't know which prompts,
and I'll not talk to a human being," et cetera.
It's been totally 180° from that.
Anytime I've called,
I have been able to get to someone fairly quickly
and each and every person has been
professional, knowledgeable, and pleasant
and I have not had one encounter,
on any of my calls, that has been a negative
and I've been totally surprised about that.
I was surprised at how easy the registration was.
I dreaded that and I thought "This will take me forever."
But the pamphlet that was given, that we got online,
was excellent, it's very well done.
I had a slight issue with getting the number
of our certification number for our software company.
And, of course, one I called the software company,
they have all that documented.
You know, the governmental agencies have been
easy to understand and accessible.
We wouldn't have a fighting chance, but, because
of those two things, I do feel we'll be able to qualify.
We're in the middle of the reporting period right now,
October, November, December,
and, so far, with our software, we're 100%.
Patients aren't that aware that we're doing this
because it doesn't interfere with
the doctor-patient relationship or the office visit.
We're making sure, you know,
that we're getting all the medications in the EHR.
And, of course, you know, they bring their list in,
of the ones prescribed by other physicians,
and, you know, these are things that, maybe,
they didn't have to do, up to a point,
but it's much more inclusive and we are doing the eprescribing.
I would just advise anybody to just go to your Web site
and there are a lot of links to go to
and you cannot go to all of them,
but go to as many as you can and slowly, but surely,
it will start to fall in place.
One thing: doctors' notes are known for being
a little illegible, so EHR is good
and the continuity between office visits is much better
because it's all in one patient section,
rather than paper after paper after paper,
lab test results, you know, part of the paper chart.
And it is a definite transition, but I do think it's worth it.
It's not the answer to everything,
but I do think it's good to move to EHR.