Designed to help members select EMR software

Funded in part through a grant received from the AAOS Board of Councilors State Orthopaedic Society Committee, the Florida Orthopaedic Society (FOS) held a 2-day demonstration program in 2011 to assist members who have yet to adopt an electronic medical records (EMR) system.

The event was held in Orlando, Jan. 21–22, and was enthusiastically received by FOS members. More than 80 orthopaedic surgeons, orthopaedic practice administrators, and other practice personnel attended. Nine companies that market EMR software programs participated in the event.

Prior to the meeting, the FOS conducted a significant amount of preparatory work. Each vendor received and completed a questionnaire, which provided baseline data on its system. Each vendor also received a model patient encounter script, developed by the FOS, that was used during the demonstrations.

With equivalent baseline data and a similar encounter script for the demonstration, attendees had a better opportunity to compare the different systems. Likewise, vendors were able to highlight those features that set their respective systems apart from the competition.

With such a large gathering, the audience was divided into two separate breakout groups. Each vendor conducted an hour-long system demonstration for each breakout group, followed by a group debriefing of the presentation. These sessions were quite lively—it was obvious that the audience was highly engaged. At the end of the program, a large group ‘wrap-up’ session was held.

Attendees raised a significant number of questions and provided considerable feedback to the FOS. The next step in the project is to create a side-by-side reference tool on the key functions of the various systems as identified by the attendees. These evaluation tools will be distributed to the entire FOS membership to assist those who may be implementing EMR systems in their practices.

The AAOS Practice Management Committee has developed two primers on EMR systems. Both can be downloaded from the AAOS practice management Web site, www.aaos.org/pracman

Information and Resource Articles: Electronic Medical Records

Fraser Cobbe is the executive director of the Florida Orthopaedic Society. He can be reached at fcobbe@cobbemanagement.com