With so many practices now converting to EMR and a large number of them using ASP programs, it is important to understand some basics when it comes to your internet infrastructure. All physician offices are after a fast and Secure connection with all of their devices. By not understanding the basics, you risk spending thousands of dollars on an EMR product that will be ill equipped to perform at its optimum level. Lacking the necessary throughput or bandwidth, will not only slow your office down, but will also put your ASP and wireless applications at a greater risk of crashing.
Throughput and Bandwidth, What do they mean to me?
What do I mean by throughput? It is very simple. You can think back to physics and fluid flow or fluid dynamics as might recall. The way your internet connection works is similar in many ways to the water hose on the side of your house. The difference is that now your house and all other houses on your block share the same underground supply line that has a 1"i.d. Imagine trying to water your yard at the same time your neighbor four houses down is filling up his swimming pool, hope you have a book because you are going to be there for a while.
This illustration is similar to your internet connection in a variety of ways. With Comcast's cable and At&t's DSL, you have probably been told that your speed will be up to X megabits per second(Mbps)
Avoiding ASP Potholes
Most EMR solutions have great picture editing software and thousands of templates that if you are an ASP user, all are pulled from a central remote server. I love ASP model EMR/PM systems and prefer them over the more traditional client server model. There are a variety of reasons for my preference but the downside to an ASP application is your reliance on the internet connection. This and off site security/backups are always the biggest concerns when selecting an ASP EMR provider. The problem is that although the software is great, you will be pulling out what little hair you have left when your pictures are taking forever to load or worse your system freezes in the middle of seeing a patient.
How to avoid the ASP lag?
First off, avoid when finances and circumstances will permit, the use of DSL and cable service providers. You cannot count on a speed with these providers and in most cases they will not guarantee up time or a service interruption response time. If able a good solution would be a dedicated T1 or maybe two T1 lines if you have a large office. I personally use a few different providers and first see who can supply me with the data connection then see who can give me the best price. A dedicated T1 line will be in most cases much faster than the fastest cable connection and will always provide you a consistent speed. Regardless of what service you use, keep your employees off of the internet and make it a big deal if they are caught on it. Even better, and what I did for a recent client, is to disable the employees ability to access the internet from their stations. I designated one computer as our internet computer and it was not part of our internal network. If you only knew what you open your data up to through the internet, you would disable their access tomorrow. You also want to do computer check ups that make sure there are not applications running behind the scenes using up valuable bandwidth.
To understand more about the different EMR applications available you might want to first visit http://FreeEMRsolution.com and read the numerous articles. If you would like to receive information from reputable T1 providers in your area visit http://T1internetservicequotes.com and receive a free comprehensive analysis.
