Twin-Location Florida Practice Leverages Full Suite of Modules While Preparing to Employ Software to Achieve Meaningful Use and Newly Available Certified Medicare Version
BELLEVIEW, Fla., Aug. 30, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Much like yesteryear's family doctor or general practitioner, The Family Doctors of Belleview's eight board-certified Primary Care physicians and two physician assistants (PAs) serve most every healthcare need in the Florida city town bearing its name and at a second location in nearby The Villages. "From diaper rash to skin cancer, depression to heart failure," The Family Doctors uses a team approach and MedInformatix Inc.'s Practice Management (PM) and Electronic Medical Records (EMR) solution to serve the area's population in ways that Dr. Marcus Welby could only dream of.
MedInformatix's PM and EMR solution enables the practice to serve an average 200 patients each day with the PM component handling and tracking all billing, claims and accounts receivable functions with the solution's U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS)' Stage 1 Meaningful Use-certified EMR module giving The Family Doctors a head start in its eventual ability to better track its treatment of diseases and conditions from high blood pressure and diabetes to kidney disease and heart failure.
MedInformatix's integrated, easy-to-use package also enables practice physicians and PAs to build and design workflow functions that best accommodate existing operating requirements rather than forcing users to adhere to a rigid, one-size-fits-all system.
"The system we had in place prior to MedInformatix PM and EMR was strictly for practice management," recalls Tom Menichino, The Family Doctors' CEO. "Our need for an EMR package is abundantly clear, ideally an integrated solution with both PM and EMR modules in a single system. We issued an RFI [six years ago], receiving demos from several vendors. MedInformatix' integrated approach, its ease-of-use and the fact that it is SQL-based given the wide variety of Macs and PCs we had in place made our choice easy.
"Test driving each of these systems, we quickly recognized that MedInformatix PM and EMR was designed with doctors in mind," Menichino continued, recalling how easily a physician at The Family Doctors who had been practicing for 30 years became proficient with the system with a bare minimum of hand holding.
The Family Doctors' patients, as well as its physicians, PAs and 23-person administrative staff have also taken a strong liking to the MedInformatix system, another indication, given Florida's large Medicare population, of the PM/EMR system's ease-of-use. The practice issues bar coded identification cards, which patients use to swipe in upon arriving at the office. With 200 patients each day, some, under the former "pen-and-paper" system, would get lost in the shuffle with receptionists unaware of their presence at the office.
"If you were to spend a day at our facility, you'd never know that we see 200 patients because it runs so smoothly," Menichino said. "Part of the reason is because the MedInformatix system is so easy to use, even our elderly patients—many of whom can be somewhat technophobic—are fully comfortable with it. In fact, those that haven't migrated to the bar code system often ask, 'Where's mine?'"
Separately but related, MedInformatix' PM's and EMR's integration with ZirMed's clearinghouse solution has improved The Family Doctors' back office operations related to billing, invoices and insurance claims. ZirMed's incorporation into the PM/EMR solution streamlines practice operations and provides a single point of contact for system training and support, Menichino said. Not that much of either is needed.
"We're currently using version 6.2 and will soon be prepared to upgrade to Version 7.5, the available Meaningful Use-certified version," he said. "The MedInformatix system is better than any I've ever seen, and we continue to get more out of it the longer we use it."
About MedInformatix:
MedInformatix, Inc. (www.medinformatix.com) is a leading national provider of fully integrated Electronic Health Records. The products have been built around MedInformatix's 25 years of workflow expertise. MedInformatix's suite of products is designed on a single database using Microsoft SQL. Whether the client is a single physician who went live in 1994, a 13-location cardiology practice, the busiest radiology practice in Manhattan, or one of 15 other serviced specialties, MedInformatix accommodates their needs. MedInformatix can turn the dream of a paperless, integrated practice into a reality.
MedInformatix Version 7.5 is now certified to meet 2011-2012 criteria supporting Stage 1 Meaningful Use requirements under the American Recovery and Reinvestment act (ARRA) as a Complete EHR by the Drummond Group.
This Complete EHR is 2011/2012 compliant and has been certified by an ONC-ATCB in accordance with the applicable certification criteria adopted by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. This certification does not represent an endorsement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services or guarantee the receipt of incentive payments."
MedInformatix, October 22, 2010, Version 7.5, 1022201024238, Clinical Quality Measures: NQF0013, NQF0421, NQF0041, NQF0024, NQF0028, NQF0038, NQF0059, NQF0061, NQF0064. Additional software used: TrueCrypt v2.0, email software, spreadsheet software.
SOURCE MedInformatix, Inc.