EMR Event held in Scottsdale Arizona 2009
Event held at Scottsdale Medical Center, AZ for affiliated physicians interested in switching to an electronic medical record. The hospital has chosen to partner with McKesson and AZCOMP offering their EMR solutions- Medisoft Clinical, Lytec MD, and Practice Partner- at an exclusive negotiated discount rate. AZCOMP is the local reseller chosen by the hospital to install, train, and support the software for the physicians.
The special guest speakers at the event were Jaron Fischbeck, MD and Janet Mullins, MD. - two local physicians who have been using the Electronic Medical Record since 2007. These physicians use Total Practice Partner, but all the EMR features they show are applicable to Medisoft Clinical and Lytec MD. (The EMR is the same in each software- the difference is the patient accounting software.)
For viewing convenience the videos have been broken down into smaller segments. Feel free to start at the top and work your way down to view the entire event, or pick and choose which topics most interest you and jump around.
Why transition to an Electronic Medical Record?
Dr. Mullins shares several reasons why she chose to get rid of paper charts- Efficiency, Quality Care, Reporting, Save Paper. She also shares how she decided on Practice Partner among so many options. Dr Mullins gives a brief overview of why she was attracted to this software.
Going from paper charts to a paperless practice
Dr Mullins shares what had to change from the paper to electronic world. She also shows the timeline for implementing the software. Dr Fischbeck introduces himself and shares his experiences of two different transitions from paper charts to electronic. He compares the implementation of nextgen during his residency to implementing practice partner at Kachina Family Practice.
Getting rid of Paper Charts
Most physicians have thousands of charts that they can't even fit in their office and rent space just to store the charts. When switching to an EMR the big decision has to be made- how do we get rid of our paper charts. Who scans them? How long will it take to scan all the paper charts and put them on our server? How much will it cost? Should I outsource the scanning or do it ourself? Dr. Fischbeck shares what they decided to do and gives some reasons as wll as pros and cons for the various options.
Communication with Patients
Messaging patients with quick texts is easy and efficient. Dr Mullins shares common messages that they have templates for: Reviewing lab results, instructions so the patient can get prior authorization themself, and many more. They also made a message for "no more refills until they come in again". Which has a "Harsh" or "Soft" message option. Patients appreciate the ease of the messages. Orders are quickly done in the software by the physician while they are with the patient. They pop up on the medical assistants dashboard and by the time they are done meeting with the physican their orders are ready and they don't have to wait around.
Intra Office Communication
The entire practice had to learn to communicate with eachother in a whole new way. No more excuses- "I didn't get the memo" or "I didn't look at the white board".
Using Templates for documentation
Dr Fischbeck shares what was important and why they chose to use templates to document: Most important was providing quality care, second was documenting rapidly and accurately. Now documentation is done real time with the patient in the room. I can leave at the end of the day and I am done. I can spend more time with my family than with my charts. Now we can get paid for everything we do because of our documentation.