The 60% You’re Missing: How to Maximize Your EMR’s Untapped Potential

Episode 127: The 60% You’re Missing: How to Maximize Your EMR’s Untapped Potential

Welcome to another episode of Medical Money Matters, where we explore ways to help physicians and administrators make smarter business decisions without sacrificing patient care.

Today’s topic hits home for just about every medical practice out there: EMRs. They’re the systems we love to hate—and sometimes just outright hate. But here’s the thing: many practices are sitting on a goldmine and don’t even realize it. Instead of scrapping your current EMR and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars switching, what if you could get a major upgrade simply by using what you already have?

Many medical groups only use about 30–40% of their EMR’s capabilities. That means up to 70% of the tools you need to work smarter, not harder, are already right there—waiting for you to harness them. Today, we’re diving into the steps you can take to give your EMR a full makeover, optimize both your business office and clinical workflows, and most importantly, get you and your team out of the EMR quicksand and back to focusing on patient care.

Let’s start by peeling back the curtain on some facts that may surprise you. Studies by HIMSS and the Medical Group Management Association show that, on average, practices use less than half of the tools available in their EMR systems. Most of us are stuck using the same templates, the same workflows, and the same inefficient processes we started with during go-live—sometimes five, ten, or even fifteen years ago.

Why is so much potential left untapped? Part of it is the chaos of implementation. When you first went live with your system, the goal was survival, not mastery. Add in staff turnover, inconsistent training, and the sheer pace of change in healthcare, and it’s no wonder optimization falls by the wayside. But what if you could recover that lost opportunity without starting from scratch?

The first step in your EMR makeover journey is simple but essential: conduct an audit. Not just a technical audit—an operational one. Take a hard look at your current workflows. How does information move from scheduling to billing? How do physicians document a visit? Where are the bottlenecks and frustrations? Interview your front desk staff, your billers, your MAs, your nurses, and your providers. They will tell you, in painful detail, exactly where things break down. If this seems too overwhelming to even begin, an external workflow consultant with a fresh set of eyes and ears can be extremely helpful.

Next, reach out to your EMR vendor. Many vendors offer system optimization reviews for free or at low cost, especially if you’ve been a client for several years. They can help you identify underused modules, new upgrades you haven’t deployed, product add-ons that have come available on the market since your initial installation, or hidden settings that could streamline your workflows.

Finally, set measurable goals. Don’t just say, “We want the EMR to be better.” Get specific. Aim to decrease claim rejections by 10% over six months. Target shaving five minutes off average documentation time per encounter. Goals should be ambitious but realistic—ones you can rally the team around.

Now that the groundwork is laid, let’s get tactical. Let’s talk business office optimization—because every dollar you can capture without added cost goes straight to your bottom line.

First, take a hard look at revenue cycle automation. Are you fully utilizing your auto-coding and charge capture tools? Many practices aren’t. If your EMR has embedded coding suggestions or claim scrubbers, it’s time to activate and fine-tune them. Fewer manual touchpoints mean faster, cleaner billing—and that means faster payments. A caveat here: beware of adding in coding scrubbers that may downcode visits – we don’t want that to happen! Assure that you get communication back from the system and that you don’t automate a reduction in your revenue

Eligibility verification is another bit of low-hanging fruit. Manual insurance checks eat up enormous staff time and cause delays in billing. Make sure your system is automatically running eligibility checks at the time of scheduling or at least a day before the appointment. No more last-minute surprises at check-in, or worse yet, finding out a visit won’t be covered AFTER you’ve done the work.

Speaking of money, patient billing workflows can make or break your revenue cycle. Use the EMR’s patient portal capabilities to their fullest. Enable e-statements, automate payment reminders, and set up easy online payment and text payment options. The easier you make it for patients to pay, the faster you get paid—and the happier your patients will be. I’ve said many times on this podcast, as a patient, I want to get my bill from you by text, I want to pay it on my phone with my vaulted credit card, and I want to be done. And, if you make it that easy, I’ll pay quickly!

Don’t forget your reporting and analytics tools. You should have real-time dashboards tracking KPIs like Days in AR, Clean Claim Rate, and Denial Rate. If your system doesn’t have that functionality out of the box, you might be able to build custom reports or add affordable modules.

Lastly, invest in your people. Most EMR training happens during onboarding and is never refreshed. Commit to quarterly EMR refreshers specifically for business office staff, focusing on revenue cycle management features. Even small improvements in staff efficiency translate into major revenue gains over time.

Now, let’s shift to the clinical side, where the real pain–and opportunity–lives.

One of the quickest wins in clinical optimization is building better templates and smart phrases. Most EMRs allow providers to create and customize templates for common visit types. If your physicians are typing or dictating large chunks of information for every single encounter, you’re wasting valuable time.

Voice recognition is another area where small improvements can have a massive impact. If you invested in a dictation tool like Dragon but never properly trained your providers on it—or if settings haven’t been personalized—it’s time to revisit. Properly configured voice tools can save hours of typing each week.

Another strategy that’s gaining ground is team-based documentation. Consider pre-visit planning, where MAs or nurses tee up parts of the note before the provider even enters the room. Some practices also use scribes—either in-person, virtual or AI—to handle documentation in real-time. That allows the physician to focus on patient care during the visit and reduces after-hours charting dramatically.

Clinical decision support tools are powerful but tricky. You don’t want to flood providers with meaningless alerts—that’s the fastest way to create “alert fatigue.” Instead, selectively turn on decision support features that enhance care, like medication interaction warnings, age-appropriate screening reminders, and chronic disease management prompts.

Medication reconciliation often gets short shrift because it’s cumbersome. If your EMR offers smart tools for medication history imports, allergy checking, or automatic reconciliation suggestions, make sure your team knows how to use them. Safer prescribing equals better outcomes and lower liability risk. And, here’s a great place to use your portal. You can set up your system to ask your patients to check in ahead of their visit, and to update their medication lists. Many can—and do—a good job with that, and some will require some assistance.

If you really want to reduce pajama time—that dreaded after-hours charting—you need to think about workflow at the visit level. Train physicians on batch ordering. Teach them how to set up order sets that bundle common labs, imaging, and referrals with one click. Delegate inbox management wherever appropriate—let MAs or RNs triage messages and refill requests.

Finally, customize the alert system. Not all alerts are created equal. Work with your IT team or vendor to prioritize truly critical alerts while minimizing distractions.

After you’ve implemented some of these optimization strategies, it’s important to measure your results. Track average documentation time per visit. Monitor AR days and first-pass resolution rates. Watch your portal engagement metrics. And don’t forget the human side—survey your staff and providers about their satisfaction and burnout levels post-optimization.

Of course, no optimization journey is without its pitfalls. Some common traps to watch out for include overcomplicating templates—making them so detailed that they become a burden rather than a help. Ignoring front-line staff input is another huge mistake. The people who use the system every day know best what’s working and what’s not.

Another trap? Losing momentum. Optimization isn’t a one-time project; it’s an ongoing mindset. Build a small, agile EMR optimization team that meets quarterly. These are your superusers, and they probably deserve capes! Or, maybe just really cool t-shirts. Regular tune-ups keep your system aligned with the evolving needs of your practice.

Celebrate the quick wins along the way. Every minute saved in documentation, every denied claim avoided, every happier provider—it all adds up.

Before we close, I want to leave you with some encouragement. You don’t have to rip and replace your EMR to see real, meaningful improvements. Most practices are sitting on a system that’s already capable of doing so much more—if only we take the time to unlock it.

I invite you to choose one business office optimization and one clinical optimization to tackle over the next month. It doesn’t have to be huge—small changes, consistently applied, create massive results over time.

And of course, if the idea of tackling EMR optimization feels overwhelming, know that you’re not alone. At Health e Practices, we specialize in helping medical groups achieve operational excellence. Our team has walked many practices through successful optimization projects, and we’d love to help you write your success story, too.

Thank you for joining me today. If you found this episode helpful, please share it with a colleague who could use a little EMR inspiration. Until next time, keep fighting the good fight—and remember, small steps lead to big victories.