Physicians Practice - Tech Guide 2008 - (Page 26)

OPERATIONS But that’s generally true only for first-time prescriptions. Nelson suggests that physicians focus on the downstream benefits of automatic prompting and reduced call-back volume. And remember how often written prescriptions go missing. “All too often, physicians have to leave the exam room and walk out into the hallway to get their prescription pads,” says Moore. “They leave them in the other exam room; they leave them at a table somewhere. They just don’t have them on hand, and there is the inefﬁciency of walking in and out. Then when you hand that patient that piece of paper, they end up losing it and have to call back in to get another version written.” MONEY IN THE BANK lab reports are scanned twice a day, but there’s still an entire department that combs through paper reports and shufﬂes paper ﬁles. If the front ofﬁce can beneﬁt from paperless efﬁciencies, then what about your billing department? away. “We receive some paper EOBs from the smaller companies, but everything is done through electronic remittance and direct deposit. So we are really limiting the amount of paper on that side,” says Shaikh. They are also saving themselves a lot of time. “I can truly say that there is not a piece of paper that we haven’t gotten rid of.” GOING, GOING, GONE John Bonini, North Carolina Orthopaedic Clinic Many times when a practice says it is paperless, it’s really only referring to the front ofﬁce. All of the patient records are in the EMR, and incoming READ MORE ABOUT IT! To find out more about successfully implementing a “paperless” EMR solution at your practice, visit PhysiciansPractice.com: • Are you getting a return on your investment — or your planned investment — for that new EMR? Are you sure? Type “Calculating an EMR’s ROI” in our Search Articles box to find out. • Everyone has a “reason” for stalling the transition to electronic records, says Dr. Steve Ryan. Find out how Ryan confronted and counteracted his EMR fears by typing “How I got Over My EMR Excuses” in our Search Articles box. • Want to buy an EMR but afraid you lack the tech know-how? Go to our Tools section and download “Decisions, Decisions: Your IT Shopping Checklist” to get help comparing products and ensuring they are appropriate for your office’s specific needs. Although most practices send out electronic claims, very few take advantage of electronic remittance. The vast majority of practices are still receiving printed checks that must be physically carried from the ofﬁce to the bank for deposit. The problem is that a trip to the bank might not happen for two or three days — or sometimes not at all. “We have talked to many ofﬁces where some staff member quits and the next person to come in opens a drawer and ﬁnds all these checks, thousands of dollars of checks that never got deposited because that person never had time to get to the bank,” says Moore. Although not all electronic clearinghouses offer electronic remittance, many do. Medicare offers electronic remittance for its claims, yet only 12 percent of practices take advantage of it. Why have your employees waste time driving to the bank and standing in line when Medicare or your clearinghouse can do the work for them? It’s an efﬁciency solution that Springﬁeld Cardiology adopted right Moore also recommends that billing departments scan any print EOBs they receive into the EMR. “It’s one of those documents that always go missing,” she says. Just as with patient charts, there is no sense in having employees waste time searching for a paper EOB when a digitized version can be accessed easily by everyone.” ROME WASN’T BUILT IN A DAY Although all of these are good suggestions that can increase your practice’s efﬁciency, don’t expect to implement any or all of them today and go paperless by tomorrow. “We are certainly not 100 percent paperless at this stage,” says Shaikh, whose practice has been live with an EMR for about six months. “I would say we have eliminated 50 to 75 percent of the paper we were using before we implemented our EMR.” In fact, the practice increased the amount of paper it was generating when it first switched to its EMR. “We didn’t have our fax server set up right, so we were printing letters and scanning them back in,” WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM 26 | PHYSICIANS PRACTICE | TECHNOLOGY GUIDE http://PhysiciansPractice.com 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

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