Physicians Practice - Tech Guide 2008 - (Page 25)

OPERATIONS “I would say we have eliminated 50 to 75 percent of the paper we were using before we implemented our EMR.” SAVING TREES Azim Shaikh, Springfield Cardiology tions to patients’ pharmacies with just a few mouse clicks. Although some pharmacies still don’t accept e-prescriptions, most will be able to accept your electronic signal and print out prescriptions as faxes. Whatever the case, e-prescription also eliminates another big reason for frequent practice calls: illegible physician handwriting. Often it’s physicians themselves who put up the most resistance to e-prescribing. “Every physician is always going to ﬁnd that it is faster to write a prescription on a piece of paper than it is to enter it electronically,” admits Nelson. to route newly scanned documents, such as test results, to the appropriate nurse or physician for approval or follow-up. After all, what good is digitizing a piece of paper if no one ever sees it? In fact, this is one area in which your EMR deﬁnitely has it over paper: patient safety. “When we get results that need to be followed up on, we can track that electronically far easier than we could on paper,” says Rosemarie Nelson, an MGMA healthcare consulting principal based in Syracuse, N.Y. Nelson notes that an electronic tickler function in EMRs can be especially useful for internal medicine, primary care, and OB/GYN practices, where lab results frequently require review. But there’s still the question of how paper makes the transition into your EMR. First, consider adding a compatible fax server to your EMR. It will digitize incoming faxes, freeing your staff from printing and rescanning paper faxes, which can be an incredible waste of time. Someone will still have to ﬁle those faxes in the appropriate electronic chart (or route them to the appropriate nurse or physician), but that’s much easier and less time-consuming than ﬁling paper in a physical chart. Some lab and consultant reports will most likely continue to arrive via snail mail, so someone will need to scan those items as well. Azim Shaikh, practice manager for Springfield Cardiology, a threephysician practice in Springfield, Ohio, recommends designating only one or two people to scan paper documents into the EMR. Springfield Cardiology’s check-out person scans in all incoming mail, and Shaikh estimates that person spends about two-and-a-half hours each day scanning and electronically filing documents. But be sure to ask your EMR vendor how its scanning module works. EMR systems index scanned documents differently. “All vendors do not create scanning the same way,” warns Nelson. A PRESCRIPTION FOR SUCCESS IN SUMMARY Just because you implement an EMR doesn’t mean your practice can go paperless overnight. Consider some of the following solutions to help your practice improve its paperless work ﬂow: • Scan active patient charts, but be prepared to keep older charts in storage for a while. Most states regulate the length of time practices must retain medical records. healthcare world has gone completely digital. Have a plan for how your practice will deal with paper-based incoming lab results, consultant reports, billing and insurance communications, and EOBs. A fax server and a scanning module that interact with your EMR can help convert a lot of this paper into electronic ﬁles. work ﬂow. It doesn’t just reduce your volume of patient follow-up phone calls. A good e-prescribing tool can prompt physicians to renew prescriptions and offer patients lower-cost medications. • Remember that not everyone in the One area in which going paperless can help improve your practice’s efﬁciency is in e-prescribing. “Twenty-ﬁve percent of calls from patients asking for a reﬁll on a prescription happen within one week of their last visit,” notes Moore. Why? Usually because there was no electronic system that reminded the physician to renew the prescription during the patient visit. An e-prescribing tool can eliminate those follow-up calls as well as the inevitable telephone requests for cheaper prescriptions. A good e-prescribing tool will have some of the formularies from the major payers in your area and can prompt you for less expensive options. With a good e-prescribing tool, you should be able to send prescrip- • Consider e-prescribing as part of your • Don’t forget paperless solutions for your billing ofﬁce. Electronic claims and electronic remittance can save your practice time and money. ofﬁce’s processes have to go paperless. If a piece of paper helps your practice operate more efﬁciently, then keep using it. • Keep in mind that not all of your WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM TECHNOLOGY GUIDE | PHYSICIANS PRACTICE | 25 http://WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Physicians Practice - Tech Guide 2008

Physicians Practice - Tech Guide 2008 TG Cover Story: Protect Your Practice and Sleep Better Operations: Paperless? Not Quite The Internet: You've Got Mail...Or Do You? Patient Relations: Attention Grabbers The Tech Doctor: All About Blogs Lessons Learned: 'My EMR Nightmare...And Why I'd Do It Again' Scheduling: No More No-Shows The Marketplace: Who's Got Your Back IT Enhancement: Time, at Last, for an Upgrade? Online: 'Yup, I'm a Junkie. And Proud of It.' In the Office: New Technologies in the Workplace: Blessing or Curse? Web Surfing: If You Build It...

Physicians Practice - Tech Guide 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.