Physicians Practice - Tech Guide 2008 - (Page 56)

IT ENHANCEMENT SCRAP YOUR BAD DATA “We had 88 ‘Aetnas,’ all with the wrong address.” Douglas Blair, Mount Carmel Health System such as ﬁnding unpaid claims? Or data scrubbing? Can our billers choose how to submit claims? • How are ﬁnancial data tracked? What reports are available? Which will we ﬁnd truly useful? • Is the system fully HIPAA-compliant and secure over the Internet? Can we control user access? Naturally, you’ll want to put your current vendor through the question mill, too: Is your PMS still on the market? A lot has changed since the original practice management software entrepreneurs ﬁrst hawked their solutions. “Back in the eighties, there were hundreds of vendors. Then the market matured, and many vendors fell out,” says Paul Stinson, senior vice president of Sage Software, which manufacturers the practice management system Intergy. Treat the issue of vendor robustness very seriously. Scrutinize each one’s ﬁnancial stability and growth; ability to offer an integrated EMR; level of compliance with HIPAA and other regulations; responsiveness when you have questions; quality of software servicing and support; user training programs; clarity of pricing; and competency of salespeople. Beware of any vendor making inordinate promises to customize its software; in all likelihood, that software is simply not right for your practice. Also, feel free to pop in your jaundiced eye and cast it about whenever you see ﬁt, especially if a vendor claims unique features. “If any salesman comes in and says that their system does something the others don’t, they’re probably lying, because they all pretty much do the same thing,” says Blair. 4. Send out an RFI and an RFP . Dolphin advocates presenting your questions to vendors in an RFI, or request for information document. Here, you can present to vendors all of your unknowns in an orderly fashion, as well as any scenarios unique to your practice. “Once we received [the RFIs] back, we rated [the vendors],” says Dolphin. “We selected five for RFPs [request for proposals] and started what we called the ‘dog and pony shows.’” ADVICE TO THE UPGRADE-WORN If you’ve chosen wisely, your vendor will be an invaluable partner during your transition, as long as you both ﬁrmly commit to a high level of communication. “You need a project manager who can appropriately communicate with the practice and the vendor,” says Stinson. He recommends establishing an implementation team that develops a project timeline and facilitates weekly or even daily update calls between vendors and practices. Also, expect the upgrade process to take some time 56 | PHYSICIANS PRACTICE | TECHNOLOGY GUIDE WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM http://www.DocSite.com/PQRI http://www.DocSite.com/PQRI 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.