Physicians Practice - Tech Guide 2008 - (Page 43)

family or personal situation. When I comment on these items during a follow-up visit — frequently months later — patients are astonished by my photographic memory. 8. My handwriting is now legible to all. Printed prescriptions mean no more snide remarks from pharmacists about illegible handwriting. All prescriptions are neatly printed. I then add an embossed seal to the prescription, making it difﬁcult to duplicate. 9. Real-time charting within exam rooms mean reimbursement for all of my time. Before my EMR, I would see as many patients as possible during the day, often hand-writing notes, falling behind, and setting aside charts to be dictated later. When I sat down after clinic hours to complete patient charting, I robbed myself and my family of valuable time and energy by instead performing unreimbursed work. If properly designed, EMRs force doctors to do their charting in realtime with the patient present in the exam room. This results in a real ﬁnancial beneﬁt to the bottom line — and more free time. 10. Tracking lab results and trends is easy. Once a patient’s lab data is entered into our EMR, it can represent the ﬁndings in different formats. For example, cholesterol levels can be monitored in easily readable graphs. Growth and development charts for pediatric patients can be charted so parents can easily visualize and follow their child’s progress. Printed copies of such patient information, handed to patients as they leave the exam room, are very popular. 11. Patient education handouts increase satisfaction. Our EMR contains a considerable database of useful patient education materials on a wide variety of medical topics that they can take home with them. And patients love them. 12. Interoffice communication is easier than ever. Our EMR enables easy electronic communication among office staff. Telephone calls, prescription refill requests, patient reminders, action items, and other information are now easily passed back and forth between desktops, eliminating the need for a telephone intercom system. WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM 13. We can easily fulfill chart note requests. The former unending chore of copying chart notes to submit to motor vehicle accident and workrelated injury third-party payers is now much easier. Many practices hire outside vendors to come into their ofﬁces and photocopy patient charts for this purpose. Now we can produce these charts with a simple mouse click. Another time-consuming administrative job eliminated! 14. Referral letters are a breeze. One mouse click pulls a name from a database of referral healthcare providers, prints a referral letter after I enter my speciﬁc request, tailors it to the patient I’m treating, and the system does the rest for me. I can give the letter to my patient at the end of the encounter and/or directly send it by fax or e-mail to the referral physician’s ofﬁce. By the time the patient Accelerate ® TECHNOLOGY GUIDE | PHYSICIANS PRACTICE | 43 http://scansharp.com http://scansharp.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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