Resulting increases in efficiency helped 17 community-based primary care clinics recoup their EHR expenditures in an average of 10 months, according to a new study in JMIR Medical Informatics.
Based on data collected from the clinics, researchers found a 27 percent average increase in the clinics' ratios of active patients to full-time-equivalent clinicians, and a 19 percent increase in ratios of active patients to clinical support staff FTEs following EHR implementation. The additional patients the clinics could handle led to an increase in net revenue, and helped the clinics reach a break-even point in an average of 10 months.
The clinics that recouped EHR costs the quickest were those that took the fullest advantage of the EHR to streamline workflows involving patient information, including maintaining problem lists, managing test results and meeting national coding standards.
"This study provides evidence to practitioners in primary care that investment in EHR can be a sound decision with a reasonable cost recovery time frame, while providing immediate opportunities for increased operational efficiency and the potential for further improvements in clinic performance and benefits realization from EHR," wrote the researchers.
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