Dr. Seth Eaton
Laurel, Maryland
Primary care, adult medicine and pediatrics
MedPeds, LLC, a five-physician practice, specializing in primary care, adult medicine and pediatrics, sought an EMR to better meet the needs of the many established patients it continues to treat after 23 years. The process was a complete success with the practice transitioning from paper charts to computer charts in one week!
In 2004, MedPeds, LLC made the transition from a practice operating with paper-based charts to one utilizing computer charts. Unlike most EMR vendors which advertised a conversion time of three to six months, Dr. Seth Eaton identified a Westborough, Mass.-based vendor that claimed a transition time of a mere seven days. Dr. Eaton explains, “Although I was dubious about whether this contention was accurate, in fact this is what happened. In addition, we were able to convert all of our paper-based charts to the computer, making the transition even easier for the staff.”
The best example of ease of use is the practice’s former head nurse who had never used a computer prior to implementation. When MedPeds opted to transition to a paperless practice by implementing eClinicalWorks’ solution on tablet PCs, the nurse considered retiring because the process overwhelmed her. Within two months, however, she became enamored with what she could now do for the patients in her job as a triage nurse. She’s now the solution’s biggest advocate because of how easy her job became, how quickly she was able to pull information from a patient’s electronic record and how easily her messages transferred from her desk to the physician’s desk and back again. A message from a triage nurse now goes to a physician and back an average of one day faster.
Dr. Eaton and his colleagues also like the intuitive nature of the software, which enables physicians to make changes on the fly so the system meets their own individual practice styles. Not a day goes by without some modest reconfiguration of the software to make it work more smoothly with each subsequent patient. This has led to efficiencies in staffing and other expenses. According to Dr. Eaton, the practice has reduced non-physician support staff by 33 percent and has decreased administrative, non-employee costs by an estimated 15 to 20 percent. “The total overhead for the practice has decreased, other than physician expenses, by somewhere between 15 and 20 percent. This is huge for a medical practice of our size,” said Dr. Eaton.
Another feature Dr. Eaton plans to implement is the Patient Portal from eClinicalWorks, an application that will make the patient experience more pleasant and customer-friendly. According to Dr. Eaton, the solution has extraordinary potential for transforming the patient experience through access to patient records, referrals and prescriptions that can be accessed at any time, in real-time.
“The current paradigm is that information is physician and telephone centric; whereas the Portal is patient and web centric with patients controlling their access to key information: prescriptions, referrals, lab results and appointments,” said Dr. Eaton. “The elegance of a patient centric data flow is that it will save physicians money and enhance patient satisfaction. Information patients want to receive and send is so integrated with the EMR that much staff time will be saved in patient communications, while avoiding the hassle of the customary telephone tag.”
At MedPeds, the EMR technology has reduced non-physician support staff by 33 percent. The office overhead for the practice has decreased by about 15 percent, overdue accounts have decreased by 50 percent, and income per visit has increased as doctors have documented more detailed progress notes. Patient volume has increased by 10 percent, and new patient volume has increased by 50 percent. Return on investment for the EMR is 100 percent in one year.
Meanwhile, patient satisfaction has increased, per managed care patient satisfaction surveys and in patient comments in the office. Patients like the ease of access to their records when they call in for advice from the nurse, the ease of communication with the specialist, prescriptions waiting for them at the pharmacy and the ease of obtaining accurate information from the doctor on call.
In short, Dr. Eaton and MedPeds highly recommend an EMR solution like the one they implemented because within two months of go-live, the staff was fully up to speed and seeing a full load of patients. With eClinicalWorks, physicians and nurses are doing a better job with the patients they are seeing and they are doing it with a lower overhead. The results are so astounding that MedPeds will experience a significant ROI in less than one year, because of the practice’s increased efficiency.
Why Choose eClinicalWorks Links:
|
