As clinical coordinators and administrators know, oncology care is a complex, collaborative effort requiring close collaboration between specialists. With experts like surgeons and radiation oncologists involved, how can you ensure smooth communication while keeping patient care front and center?
Specialized electronic health records (EHRs) can make a world of difference. Integrating reporting, communication, and diagnostic features into one oncology EHR software solution simplifies processes so your care team can concentrate on providing high-quality care.
Thinking about upgrading your oncology practice? Whether you’re an oncologist, administrator, or IT professional, this guide will help you check your existing system and uncover how upgrading from a generic, inefficient EHR can improve care coordination, enhance workflows, and better support both your patients and your team.
Don’t Let Generic Tools Limit Your Potential
Power Your Clinic with Oncology EHR!
Required Features for Oncology Practices
Choosing the right solution for your oncology clinic can be challenging in today’s health-tech world. To make the process smoother, we’ve put together this helpful feature list:
Chemotherapy Management
Cancer patients, especially those undergoing chemotherapy, are already in a great deal of discomfort. As an oncology clinic, you must put a premium on EHR software that can rapidly reduce waiting time while keeping resources aligned with patient needs.
Integrating appointment features with specific modules enhances clinics’ data management capabilities. So, your clinic can maintain data integrity for critical chemotherapy information such as dosages and outcomes.
Templates for Tumor Staging
Choose EHRs that come with pre-configured templates for documenting tumor stages and classifications. This also addresses data capture workflow, which clinicians might overlook without intuitive templates.
These templates cover assessments and imaging studies. For staging systems, it should encourage your clinicians to enter details like tumor size or whether there are any distant metastases. These prompts help align the oncology team while complying with standard documentation practices.
Advanced Reports
In-depth reporting is beneficial for everyone involved—not just oncologists. Informative reports offer insights; they allow clinicians to adapt the information for colleagues and patients.
This tailored communication is vital to making life-changing decisions, especially for anxious patients who might think: “Are we ready for the following procedure, or is it time to explore other treatment avenues?”
Upgrading to Interoperable Tools
Have you tried evaluating your care team’s current systems? How about connecting oncology-specific functions with the platforms? The motivation behind this little exercise is that it could help you determine the capabilities of your existing applications.
When you know the valuable functionalities, you can also assess the potential savings from using those same functionalities within a single, unified platform. With a list of interoperability or coordination tools, you can ask beyond the features your EHR vendor or partner shows you, which can often be restricted to a standard few.
To ensure a thorough discussion with your EHR partner, be sure to cover the following key points:
Soothing Communication Pains
Some clinics prioritize healthcare interoperability low, despite its role in bridging information gaps between EHRs and various platforms. You need to break from this trend to achieve connectivity that not only enhances how combined systems work—but also drives communication to a degree your care team needs, from oncology specialists to primary care providers.
Advancing Care Coordination
Clinics like yours often aim to upgrade to the best EHR software for efficient monitoring of multidisciplinary care. Since oncology care teams include specialists who use different clinical formats, having a centralized system to simplify treatment coordination is necessary.
This technology-driven alignment reduces duplicate tests, improving resource management and allowing the sharing of patient information without hassle.
How to Implement Oncology EHR
During selection, meet with your potential EHR partner to discuss how they can support your chosen rollout strategy, whether system-wide or phased.
Whether transitioning from a manual system to an EHR or from an old system to a new one, a reliable partner will always provide a tailored implementation plan that addresses key factors such as compatibility, training, and customizability, as outlined below.
Align Systems Without Interruption
Consider how well your top EHR selections integrate with your oncology practice management software in terms of:
- Interoperability with diagnostic tools
- Billing and coding system alignment
- Workflow automation and screening alerts
- Security and compliance standards (e.g., HIPAA)
- Latency and system performance
As a leading EHR partner for oncology practices, 1st Provider’s Choice has been helping clinics in this critical phase. Whether you seek efficient scheduling or require advanced clinical decision tools, we will be here to assist you in finding the fitting system.
Boost EHR Knowledge
Taking the time to undergo training may seem obvious, but it improves your team’s proficiency in using oncology EHR. On top of covering fundamental oncology workflows, confer with your software partner to ensure the resources and training curriculum align with your staff’s learning styles.
Customize Now, Scale with Confidence Later
Choosing a generic EHR may seem like the right move in today’s unpredictable market, but will it still be the best fit for your clinic in the next few years?
Try to think beyond the basics—opt for oncology software solutions that could handle more patients, boost workflows, and support various treatment services. Collaborate with an EHR partner experienced in adapting to changes, from new oncology codes to emerging tools like liquid biopsy for tumor tracking.
Tap Into Our Expertise
Is your current system equipped to handle the specific demands of your oncology practice?
Generic systems might work for now, but scaling up requires a solution built for specialists. Empower your multidisciplinary team with a system tailored specifically for oncology that includes the following:
- Chemotherapy management modules should reduce waiting times and align resources with patient needs.
- Tumor staging templates to document tumor stages and assessments accurately.
- Advanced reports that inform treatment decisions and improve data integrity.
Our customized oncology EHR is tailored through direct collaboration with hematologists and oncologists, offering a robust, full-featured platform that grows with your practice.
With over 400 customizable reports and a convenient “My Favorites” feature, access to critical data is simple. Combined with smooth installation, training, and ongoing support, your team can spend more time caring for patients while efficiently managing EHR implementation.
Need an EHR Solution Built for Oncology?