EMR Testing Tips

The Electronic Medical Record is a prime repository for patient's medical information. Doctors, pharmacists and medical laboratories use EMRs to obtain any sort of information pertaining to a patient such as allergies, reactions to medicines, prior health problems and updates of test results. Healthcare providers and medical facilities must employ test-taking measure to prevent errors and the system-wide failure of access to EMRs within their data base systems. All medical facilities should use various tips to prevent any unforeseen disaster from occurring.

Go Beyond Normal Testing

• The disaster recovery testing that all health care institutions perform, should entail more than the simple testing of backup software. Companies often perform tests to see how quickly they can restore EMR's data from tape or disc, though they sometimes fail to go further in their testing. Medical institutions need to take their testing a step further to ensure the reliability of their information for the sake of knowing how well their technology may react to an actual disaster. The fully testing of EMR's systems within a manual recovery process should occur once a month. Further, testing escalation and system alert management procedures every three to six months can assist in detecting initial problems pertaining to individual medical records. By manual testing, systems a health care organization can see how fully prepare it is as well as their employees if ever faced with a true disaster.

Start Small

• Health care facilities do not need to test entire EMRs within their databases or within an overall disaster plan exercise. In fact, it is probably wise and prudent to conduct disaster recovery test section by section. For example, gaining access to all systems is not always possible and may lead to disruption of day-to-day work functions. In addition, a large-scale test may hamper the ability to identify flaws within a company's disaster recovery plan. Therefore, health care facilities should consider testing on a smaller scale, such as performing single system checks and working their way up to complex system disruptions over a period of several months with a final scenario that simulates a total site malfunction.

Independent Facilitator

• The testing of EMRs without the aid of an independent third party could have negative consequences. For instance, staff members may be tempted to fudge the results, overlook problems within the plan, or even deem some significant malfunctions as unimportant. Health care management should assure that their plan is airtight by enlisting independent facilitators such as consultants or representatives from local police or fire departments who can verify that the test is unbiased. In addition, a third party observer can also add input or even suggest scenarios that will help improve the overall effectiveness of the test as well as improve the organization's disaster recovery plan.

Test Regularly

• A huge mistake many healthcare organizations fail to consider is constant testing and approving of their EMR's disaster recovery plan. Often many health care organizations are satisfied with their initial testing results and believe their plan needs no improvement. No responsible health care organization should feel this way as constant testing and updates can turn up problems and avoid potential issues. All health care organization should consider adding new and improved software to existing systems and retest whole systems to ensure that their staff is well prepared if a disaster strikes.