The Importance of a Specialized EMR for Emergency Room Efficiency

Designed by emergency medicine physicians, the TECdoc electronic medical record (EMR) from TECHealth is more than a documentation tool. It’s a vehicle for creating better experiences for the clinical team and better outcomes for patients, while helping hospital and freestanding ER leaders achieve goals in quality, efficiency, reimbursement and satisfaction.

“We built TECdoc to be honed and refined for the medical, legal aspects of emergency medicine,” explains Eric Wilke, MD, TECHealth chief operations officer and a practicing emergency medicine physician. 

TECdoc is structured around the unique needs of the ER environment. It can operate either as a standalone solution for freestanding ERs or seamlessly integrate with a hospital’s host EMR and revenue cycle software. 

Key features

  • Quick set-up and intuitive design
  • Simplified interface
  • AI-assisted chart review
  • Mobile and tablet friendly
  • 100% Cloud-based and scalable
  • Customizable and expandable
  • Completely secure and reliable
  • Cost effective

An EMR for ER Administrators: Optimizing Workflow & Billing

The ER is often the most important healthcare resource in many smaller communities, as well as being the single largest gateway to admissions for many hospitals. Yet most EMRs are structured with other hospital units top of mind—ICU, Med/Surg, Telemetry—with the platform and its templates being adapted for the ER.

Having an EMR optimized for the ER can help mitigate risk, improve clinician satisfaction by reducing burnout and turnover, contribute to better HCAPHS and PressGaney scores, and even enhance billing practices. 

“If you want to make your providers lives easier, remove some headaches around documentation and at the same time bring in an AI tool that creates a very sound chart for legal purposes, then this is a great option,” says Dr. Wilke.  

Thoroughness and accuracy: Many ER physicians, especially in small or rural ERs, aren’t residency trained in emergency medicine. TECdoc is designed to help providers think through possible diagnoses to help ensure nothing significant is missed. As care teams follow the TECdoc evaluation workflow, pop-ups help providers think about possible high-risk diagnoses like pulmonary embolisms or aortic dissections.  

“TECdoc’s AI also can actively review a chart at the end of an encounter in real time both for medical, legal protection and to check that you’ve documented at the appropriate level,” says Dr. Wilke.

Billing: TECdoc’s coding functionality has been fully adapted to the 2023 CMS guidelines, whereas a lot of hospital EMRs still have remnants of previous guidelines for the ER. In addition, TECdoc has been finetuned to pull in the most appropriate codes and can fully integrate with different revenue cycle platforms.

“With the way we’ve structured it, it will likely increase your E&M levels—not by gaming the system—but simply because you’re documenting appropriately for the level of presentation that’s coming in and having accounted for all the CMS changes that came in for 2023,” Dr. Wilke says. 

How TECdoc Makes Life Easier for ER Physicians & Nurses

TECdoc makes life easier for the clinicians using it. An EMR that actually reduces the documentation burden and is easy to use may seem too good to be true, but that’s the feedback Dr. Wilke says he’s consistently received. “I was at a social function a little while back, and I had an ER doc come up to me and say, ‘Thank you for the electronic medical record.’”   

While EMRs are generally associated with frustration and burnout among physicians, TECdoc has made documenting much less of a drain:   

  • Clean and simple interface 
  • Intuitive to use (30 minutes or less of training)
  • Easy to navigate charts 
  • Integrated ambient listening tool (saves hours documenting)
  • Portable/usable from a tablet (no need for a workstation on wheels)
  • Macros and “slash phrases” to create robust charts with minimal clicks/typing

“All the medical decision-making and differential is all right there, so you can look at it and use it as a checklist to make sure you can ask what you need to based off the complaint,” Dr. Wilke says. The AI takes on filling out the notes and from there, and it’s just a couple of clicks to drop in the exam. 

“The medical decision-making is super well-structured, so by the time I’ve put in the orders, most of my chart is done quickly, and I don’t have to go back and think about it later,” says Dr. Wilke.  “With our EMR system, you don’t have the after-shift documentation bolus like you have with a lot of other systems.”

Enhancing Patient Experience with TECdoc: A Mobile-Friendly, Non-Intrusive EMR

Patients want to talk to a doctor, not a computer. As a cloud-based system, TECdoc is optimized for use on mobile devices like tablets or phones. With integrated ambient listening technology that can accurately build a narrative during patient interactions, there’s no need to spend the entirety of an encounter typing away. This set-up allows ER clinicians to step out from behind a screen and truly connect with patients.    

“I think it does a good job achieving two things: allowing physicians to have an electronic charting tool in front of them as a checklist so nothing is missed and not being intrusive as you’re trying to interface with a human,” Dr. Wilke explains.  

TECdoc’s ordering interface is so simple and unintrusive that orders can be discretely placed while a physician is wrapping up an exam, without the provider feeling like it’s interrupting the interaction. This typically leads to less waiting for the patient from the time the exam is complete to the next steps in care.

“The best way to affect patient satisfaction scores is to build a strong provider culture,” says Dr. Wilke. 

He’s the first to admit that an EMR doesn’t create or define that culture. But it can be an important piece in lessening documentation-associated burnout and creating an environment where care teams can focus more on providing great care rather than documenting.  

Make TECdoc Your ER’s EMR Solution: A Game-Changer for Healthcare Providers

Whether you’re a hospital administrator, medical director or freestanding ER leader, find out how TECdoc can create a better ER for your patients, providers and bottom line. Visit TECdocEMR.com or call 877-336-6898

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