today we are going to
talk about which ehr you need for your
private practice
Nonnegotiables
now i wrote a blog post about this
i don’t know maybe like three years ago
and talked about your options for
writing notes within different
electronic health records or ehrs so now
that blog post is maybe a little
outdated but better yet i am going to
walk you through the requirements you
need to have for an ehr so you can make
the best decision for you because
spoiler alert there’s no one perfect ehr
sorry and there’s no one great ehr
that’s going to fit every one of your
needs so instead what we’re going to do
today is go through the criteria you
want to use so that when you’re shopping
for an ehr or when you’re looking to
switch ehrs you know exactly where to go
and what to do
okay so the first thing is to figure out
what are your non-negotiables everyone’s
going to have different non-negotiables
for example if you’re a group practice
certain things might be important to you
that are completely irrelevant to a solo
practitioner for example the need to
have notes approved or signed by a
supervisor or someone else or the
ability to assign people rooms when they
are booking therapy sessions
whereas if you’re an individual
practitioner pricing might actually be
one of your biggest criteria
and a lot of the ehrs have different
pricing options they might charge you by
client by month by number of clinicians
etc so think through what come up
immediately for you as a non-negotiable
what’s something you really want that
you really value
and you want to write that down and use
that as part of your criteria the rest
of the criteria i’m going to walk you
through because there are five specific
things that i think every ehr has to
have and it’s not worth paying for one
if they don’t offer that to you
Client Portal
okay so number one is a full client
portal so what does that mean what do i
mean when i say client portal that means
the ability to message your clients just
like email
except instead of them getting an email
they get a link
to their email address and that link
takes them to the ehr they log in you
know they initially create a login then
they log in and they can access all of
their information there that’s the only
way you can know that their information
is being secure through the ehr so this
functionality is huge this is what you
need for being able to share messages
with people so that you don’t have to
use email with clients
and the other big thing is this is how
you can send documents and get them
signed so your clients shouldn’t have to
download something and print it out i
mean this is not 2010 okay no printing
out if you’re using an ehr because you
don’t need to do that and don’t make
your clients do it it’s just not fun
Intake Documents
so instead your clients are able to just
create a login
read through their documents click
accept and sign and electronically sign
everything within the system so it’s 100
secure or at least as much as it can be
online and it’s super convenient for
everyone involved
okay the second thing is related you
want to be able to upload your own
intake documents or really documents of
any kind so if you have surveys you want
people to complete your intake forms
your informed consent for someone to
sign but also things like your intake
assessment and questionnaires forms that
you want clients to fill out online
and this is something that really is
non-negotiable for me because so many
ehrs offer this as an option there is no
reason to pay for an ehr that’s not
giving it to you
so again let me reiterate there should
be no need to use any other system with
your ehr in order to get a complete
intake done no one should have to go to
a printer no one should have to download
anything
okay so the third thing that i think is
non-negotiable is being able to create
your own progress notes template now i
have another video on this so i will
link to that here
but you want to be able to create your
own progress note template because it’ll
be so much faster
when you have the ability to create your
own progress note template within the
ehr you’re able to save yourself hours
over time by doing things like using
check boxes fill in the blank options
and creating shortcuts for yourself so
this really should be a fully
customizable option again so many ehrs
do have this as an option there’s no
reason to pay for one that doesn’t offer
it now the fourth thing you want to look
at is does it integrate with your
calendar again this is an easy thing to
do in 2022 okay so your ehr should be
able to read your google calendar or
whatever calendar
and make sure that you’re not double
booking yourself now if you’re someone
like me and you have adhd this is huge
because guess what at some point you’re
going to end up double booking yourself
or you’re going to end up booking a
doctor’s appointment and have to
reschedule and it creates
major hassle avoid it don’t do it let
the ehr work for you this is what you’re
paying for
it’s like a little mini assistant so use
it no calendar integration no go now
lastly the other big thing people ask me
about a streetman plans we’re going to
do a whole separate video on that
because
unfortunately
all the treatment plan options suck
it’s just how it is in ehrs they don’t
have good treatment plan options i don’t
like most of them so i’m gonna do a
whole separate video to show you how to
simplify a treatment plan within an ehr
but one thing you can do is try out any
ehr you’re considering
test it out and see which one you like
the most
and ultimately that’s what i recommend
so what i like might be different from
what you like might be different from
what someone else likes and that’s
totally fine but the thing is you have
the option to try them out test run them
write notes in them
check out the ehr and see if it works
for you
EHR Setup Day
now if you are one of many therapists i
work with
who pay for an ehr and have yet to
actually set it up and use it
then i have something for you we will be
doing an ehr setup day this is a full
co-working day where i walk you through
exactly what you need to do to set up
your ehr so it doesn’t matter what ehr
you have. e
doing an ehr setup day this is a full
co-working day where i walk you through
exactly what you need to do to set up
your ehr so it doesn’t matter what ehr
you have .