Cardiovascular Business - January/February 2008 - (Page 18)

TaPPInG InTo IT To IMPRoVe THe offICe-BaseD PRaCTICe “it’s very laborious; it took a year to transfer all of our records to the electronic chart, but by doing so, we’ve achieved new levels of efficiency and service to our patients.” — robert Hendler, practice administrator, Cardiac specialists broadband network and a Windows-based server with backup. The original plan called for a workstation in every exam room, physician office and nursing station. “We were surprised to find out every clinical staff person, not only cardiologists, needs a computer, so we needed more computers and printers than we purchased,” recalls Practice Administrator Robert Hendler. Today, each nursing station is equipped with a pair of computers, printers and scanners to provide chart access to multiple nurses and medical assistants. Migrating to an electronic chart is a process, cautions Hendler. “It’s very laborious; it took a year to transfer all of our records to the electronic chart, but by doing so, we’ve achieved new levels of efficiency and service to our patients.” The practice did stumble a bit during the implementation. For › Maintaining a Physician-centric approach The key consideration with IT investment is not which infrastructure the practice needs, says Joe Rubinsztain, Ceo of gMed Inc. Instead, the practice should ask which eMR solution supports the efficient practice of cardiology. Cardiologists work at a faster pace than most other specialties and many see more than four patients per hour. They also complete many procedures, and revenue is divided equally among the two activities. “a solid eMR operates at the speed of cardiology, and it allows multiple inputs so auxiliary personnel can contribute to the office notes,” explains Rubinsztain. at the same time, the eMR should support richness of data with minimal manual effort as cardiac data originates from multiple inputs: electrocardiograms, diagnostic devices and imaging modalities. Practices that make a wise choice will realize significant dividends as the eMR offers passage into 21st century healthcare and improves patient care and relations, reduces the paperwork burden and enables maximum efficiency, and patient care. example, the user interface presented a conundrum. With an electronic chart, the practice can define the look of the chart. Initially, physicians decided to replicate the look of a paper chart, but after realizing that they could add extra categories, they went overboard and created 35 new categories in the chart. “It’s a good idea to have a committee composed of nurses, physicians and billing staff who can balance competing issues and logically determine about 15 categories,” recommends Hendler. Categories that should make the final cut include preliminary and final lab results, says Hendler. After Cardiac Specialists realized the benefits of its new system, the practice decided to optimize it, upgrading to faster workstations and installing cache servers in all locations. Every server has the same data, which provides rapid retrieval. What’s more, with duplicates of all data in each office, the business can continue to operate if one server goes down. Other updates include interfaces with various laboratory information systems and transcription services to import information into the EMR. Electronic results are fed into the chart to eliminate the inefficiencies and costs of faxing results. The benefits of the electronic approach are significant. With instant availability of information patient service is faster. Cardiac Specialists also trimmed clerical staff from five to two, an annual savings of more than $100,000. optimizing it via outsourcing Like many office-based cardiology practices, Cardiac Solutions in Peoria, Ariz., has seen tremendous growth in the last five years. The practice exploded from a four-physician, single-site office to an eight-cardiologist practice with two offices, providing a full range of services and four nurse-directed clinics. “Our most valuable resource is physicians’ time. As we started growing, we realized we needed to tap into IT solutions like the EMR, scheduling software and BlackBerry devices to help physicians maximize productivity,” recalls Laurie Duvall, RN, director of clinical/business operations. Initially, the practice contracted with a small local IT provider to handle its IT needs; however, the company lacked the health IT know-how to deliver expected results. When Cardiac Solutions decided to implement GE Healthcare Centricity EMR and practice management software and Dragon voice recognition software, 1 Cardiovascular Business January/february 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Cardiovascular Business - January/February 2008

Cardiovascular Business - January/February 2008 Contents The Ticker: Quality Pays in Several Ways Cover Story: The Proof: Why Evidence-based Medicine Improves Cardiac Care Clinical Study Digest: Co-payments and Cath Labs Cardiac PET/CT Fills in Gaps Left by SPECT Tapping into IT to Improve the Office-Based Practice SPECT–Proving Its Value Cardiac Images in the EMR: Just a Click Away The Top 20 Ways to Market Your Cardiac CTA Practice The Big Picture: Medical Displays for Cardiac Images Statins Work But Pharmacoeconomic Caveats Abound Driving Data Protection: Opting for Storage On- or Offsite News & Views Calendar Reader’s Resource

Cardiovascular Business - January/February 2008

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