9 NextGen EHR Tips and Tricks

Your EHR should work for your practice, not the other way around. These NextGen EHR tips and tricks can help you improve the usability of your EHR, minimizing user and physician burnout while making your practice more efficient.

Here are nine NextGen EHR tips and tricks to help you get more out of your NextGen system.

NextGen EHR Tip #1: Save Time with Templates, Dashboards, and Reports

NextGen Templates, Dashboards, and Reports help you accomplish common EHR tasks with fewer clicks. For example, with custom NextGen Templates, you can administer and bill for common vaccines and tests without opening individual patient charts saving your clinical staff time and frustration.

TempDev has developed Templates that let you administer and bill for flu shots and COVID-19 vaccines with just a few clicks. Templates can also help you document common visits specific to your practice. For example, NextGen and TempDev’s Family Planning Templates help OBGyn practices, Planned Parenthood clinics, and Federally Qualified Health Centers meet their regulatory requirements and perform common functions like dispensing and billing for birth control medication.

Besides simplifying workloads with Templates, your practice can use custom NextGen Dashboards and Reports to help you keep track of your coding, billing, and revenue. These tools let you view E&M coding patterns by provider, keep track of open orders, and review your revenue cycle.

Templates, Dashboards, and Reports also help your practice comply with reporting requirements. With tools like the Quality Dashboard Template, you can auto-generate a custom set of quality measures to track your patient's individual gaps in care. This helps your physicians to close the gaps while they have the patient in the office with them.

NextGen EHR Tip #2: Customize Your System to Your Needs

Your NextGen system has built-in flexibility to help you mold it to fit your needs. For example, you can customize and configure the NextGen templates to meet your workflow needs and to reduce clicks. These minor changes save time during appointments and improve satisfaction with physicians and clinical staff.

If your practice needs assistance or is short-handed with NextGen template development, TempDev can help. With customization by TempDev, you can make your EHR fit into your practice and minimize burdens on your providers and staff.

NextGen EHR Tip #3: Use SQL Stored Procedures

SQL stored procedures can improve the functionality of your NextGen system. Stored procedures can help you process complex data elements and produce easily understood output for a patient's chart. Creating new stored procedures requires NextGen and SQL development expertise, however. Practices must be careful when using powerful tools, such as SQL stored procedures, as poorly written ones can degrade NextGen EHR performance. Reaching out to the expert developers at TempDev may be helpful if you have needs that cannot be accomplished in NextGen Template Editor alone or if some of the Stored Procedures written in-house are performing slowly.

NextGen EHR Tip­­­ #4: Enable E-Prescribing, Electronic Orders, and Electronic Referrals

With your NextGen EHR, your providers can transmit e-prescriptions to pharmacies without a need for paper prescriptions. You can also store pharmacy preferences in your patients' records to make it easier for providers to prescribe medication during office visits. Your NextGen EHR also includes built-in alerts for medication interactions, allergies, and potentially inaccurate dosing. When providers enter a new prescription, these automatic alerts can help prevent costly medication errors. E-prescribing also eliminates errors caused by illegible handwriting on traditional prescriptions. Also, all controlled substances should also be e-prescribed now and you should be participating in your state's PDMP. Downloading medication history from SureScripts and doing medication reconciliation as part of your office visits has never been easier.

Similarly, electronic lab and test orders can also reduce paperwork and errors. Within your NextGen system, providers can order labs and tests, see results, and share results with patients. You can pre-populate order templates with your practice's preferred labs and standing orders, saving time and administration burdens. You can also review and manage open orders with Templates and Reports, reducing time-to-diagnosis and duplicated testing.

Finally, through your NextGen system, providers can also send medical records and patient data for referrals and consults through NextGen Share and Direct Messaging. Electronic referrals help reduce delays from lost paperwork and faxing.

NextGen EHR Tip #5: Implement NextGen Mobile

NextGen Mobile lets your providers and employees access your NextGen system from anywhere. With NextGen Mobile, providers can respond to questions or authorize prescription refills when out of the office, reducing patient wait times. NextGen Mobile also helps your providers who would rather dictate parts of their note, such as a detailed plan, instead of clicking or typing into templates.

NextGen EHR Tip #6: Empower Patients and Save Time with NextGen’s Patient Portal

The NextGen Patient Portal lets your patients view their medical records and treatment plans from anywhere. By giving your patients easy access to their data, you empower them to take charge of their care. Plus, with secure messaging, patients can ask their provider questions between visits. This can reduce call volume and increase patient compliance with treatment plans. It also helps providers keep track of patients' progress, potentially reducing the need for follow-ups.

You can also configure the NextGen Patient Portal to let patients make their own appointments and fill out check-in paperwork. This reduces missed appointments, saves phone call time, and saves your front desk staff time.

NextGen EHR Tip #7: Redesign Your Workflows to Align with Your EHR System

A workflow is a process your practice uses to complete a task, like an office visit. If your providers and staff struggle with your NextGen EHR system, your workflows may be to blame. Workflow redesign can help you integrate your NextGen EHR into your day-to-day activities, increasing satisfaction with your system while improving efficiency.

Thoughtful workflow redesign builds use of your EHR into each step of a task. This way, your NextGen EHR becomes integrated into your day-to-day work, reducing the need for post-visit documentation or after-hours EHR updates. To redesign your workflows, start by examining your current workflows and identifying pain points and bottlenecks. You can then redesign your workflows to reduce provider and staff burdens while still capturing necessary EHR documentation.

NextGen EHR Tip #8: Continuous Improvement Through Training

EHR training is the antidote to nurse and provider burnout. Staff who know how and when to use your NextGen EHR are more satisfied and less likely to introduce patient safety errors. But training should not be a one-time effort. Ongoing training will help your staff stay up-to-date with new upgrades and features, and TempDev's NextGen trainers can help you develop a training plan and videos tailored to your staff's needs and skill levels.

NextGen EHR Tip #9: Consolidate Your Systems with Data Conversions

Your NextGen EHR can store data from your legacy systems, giving you access to all your data in one place. But converting legacy data into a NextGen-compatible format can be complicated. You need to match data fields across systems, convert legacy data, and thoroughly test for conversion errors. TempDev’s developers can help you with data conversion to ensure you get it right the first time. By consolidating your data, you will save time on data entry, reduce duplicative efforts, and prevent errors.

Call TempDev for More NextGen EHR Tips and Tricks

TempDev’s NextGen consultants, developers, and trainers can help your practice get more out of your EHR system. From customization and data conversion to templates, reports, and workflow redesign, TempDev is here to support your practice.

Call us at 888.TEMP.DEV or contact us to learn more NextGen EHR tips and tricks.