Health Care Education Blog

Upgrading your medical practice to use EMR software is a smart move that saves your office money, helps you provide better medical care, and puts you in a position to become part of a lifesaving medical network. However software is only as good as the hardware it runs on so be sure your office computers are up to the task.

Find Out the System Requirements

Before buying your medical practice software, find out what the system requirements are. This will probably include the speed of the computer processor, the amount of memory and the hard drive space needed. Some software may have other requirements such as video cards and network connections. If the vendor's website doesn't list the system requirements, call one of their sales representatives for more information.

Don't forget to check your operating system as well. If the software requires Windows XP and your office computers are still running Windows 98, you'll need to upgrade your O/S before installing the software. The same applies to Macintosh computers if that's your system of choice. Of course be sure to buy only software appropriate to your system. While you might be able to run a Windows application on a Macintosh using an emulator, it will run poorly.

Doesn't Hurt To Go With More

Be careful when reviewing the system requirements for your medical practice software. Many vendors will list both minimum and recommended requirements. In that cast, ignore the minimum and always go for recommended. Minimum system requirements will barely get your software running and even then only if the system is clean and optimized.

It never hurts to exceed the system requirements and will almost always allow the medical practice software to run faster. More memory, for example, allows the system to easily attend to multiple tasks at the same time without slowing down. Whether upgrading an existing system or buying a new computer, adding a little more memory or a larger hard drive doesn't increase the cost much but will substantially improve the computer's performance.

Ask Experts

Not all of us are computer specialists and if you don't understand the system requirements, don't guess at them. As an example, inexperienced computer users often confuse the amount of a computer's memory with the size of the hard drive since they are both measured in gigabytes. However getting a computer with a hard drive the size of the memory you need and vice versa is not going to get you a system that will work.

Many doctor offices don't have an in-house IT staff to help them with the medical practice software. In that case, take the system requirements down to your local computer store and let the experts there help you choose the right system or upgrade your existing computers.

Once you have the right computers in place, installing and using your new medical practice software will be a breeze.