Q: I'm not going to learn how to use another EHR. I'm almost retired.
This was a response, not so much a question, from an older physician I communicated with on a forum. Here's my response: hire a scribe.
There's this interesting phenomenon occurring in medicine currently that I think is absolutely f*cking brilliant. Have students in higher medical education (medical/PA/NP students) sitting in the room with the doctor transcribing what the doctor does and says. Afterward, the doctor signs off on the note, and they move on to the next patient. (Note: I'm not a fan of this for psychiatry or therapy sessions, but to each his own.)
Since P.S.Y.C.H. will require that all records be input into the universal EHR, it's paramount that the data be fairly uniform. And since older physicians are about to retire, have been through multiple EHR software, and/or have the prerogative to not use it, it just makes sense to hire scribes who are often younger, accustomed to using computers for everything, and can use the exposure to make themselves better clinicians in the future.
And scribes are cheap so they won't tax the system too heavily. If they were paid by the provider using them rather than from the general health fund, that would keep P.S.Y.C.H. in line with market principles. In other words, I can type fast enough so I don't need a scribe. And so I keep all my GHF reimbursement whereas if you don't care to type that's fine, but you have to pay someone to do it.