Practice Partner User Profile -- Fully Integrated Systems

Kitsap ColoRectal Surgery (KCRS) is a single-physician colon and rectal surgery practice located in the suburban area of Bremerton, WA. The practice has one location for office visits, while surgeries are performed at a nearby hospital and several outpatient surgery centers. When Dr. Johnny Green retired from the Navy in 1999 and decided to open a private practice, he knew that he wanted to automate his office from the start. He and his staff began looking for a comprehensive software package that included fully integrated electronic medical records and practice management applications.

As they began their search, the staff decided that their number one priority was finding a system that would closely integrate the electronic medical records (EMR), medical billing, and scheduling applications. "We basically wanted three applications that would function as one product," says Kathleen Green, Practice Manager. "What we found during our search was that companies were too liberal with their use of the word 'integrated'. Our toughest challenge was finding a vendor that not only proclaimed integration, but had a software package that could really back it up."

In July 1999, the office selected Practice Partner software from Practice Partners They chose the Total Practice Partner package, which includes Practice Partner Patient Records, Medical Billing and Appointment Scheduling. "We chose Physician Micro Systems because they had over 17 years of experience installing and supporting these systems and they were strong in all three applications, not just one product," says Kathleen Green.

The staff at KCRS recognized that setting up separate applications from up to three different vendors could be quite a headache. "We wanted to develop a relationship with one company, whom we could trust," says Kathleen Green. "We didn't want to make three different phone calls every time there was a software issue." The staff looked forward to a single training session and installation, without the need to build software interfaces and coordinate multiple vendors.

An integrated package enables the seamless sharing of patient information across all of the applications. Practice Partner Patient Records, Medical Billing, and Appointment Scheduler all use a single database, so information entered in one application is immediately available everywhere. For example, when a patient is registered in Medical Billing, their patient information is then instantly accessible in Appointment Scheduler and Patient Records. "This shared patient information has two major benefits," explains Kathleen Green. "First, it reduces redundant data entry, saving us a lot of time. Secondly, it eliminates errors and inconsistencies from having to enter patient information twice."

The patient demographics screen is identical in Patient Records, Medical Billing, and Appointment Scheduler and pulls information from all three applications. This provides all of the office staff with access to patient information that would be unavailable without an integrated system. For example, Dr. Johnny Green can open his schedule from within Patient Records, review his upcoming visits, and click on his next appointment to open the patient's chart. Dr. Green and his medical assistants also enjoy having access to patient scheduling and account information from Patient Records when speaking with patients. With Appointment Scheduler, the receptionist can view financial information from Medical Billing such as patient balance and copay amount.

The three applications also feature an identical patient look-up screen. Practice Partner provides over 20 different ways to locate the correct patient in the system. This helps everyone in the office quickly locate the patient or account information that they need. "Everyone has access to the same patient information, everyone's on the same page," explains Kathleen Green.

The staff at KCRS also uses another powerful integration feature in Practice Partner, the electronic encounter form. In Patient Records, Dr. Green completes his progress note with the appropriate diagnosis and procedure codes. When Dr. Green signs the note, Practice Partner creates an electronic encounter form with the visit information. From Medical Billing, the billing specialist accesses these encounter forms and reviews the codes for the visit. From within the encounter form, a charge is created and posted to the ledger. "The electronic encounter form makes charge posting much more efficient," comments Colleen Allen, Billing Specialist. "It saves time, reduces data entry errors, and eliminates any need for a paper superbill."

Total Practice Partner improves staff communication by allowing intra-office messaging between all members of the staff from within Patient Records and Appointment Scheduler. Even if the user switches applications, their messages will still appear. This allows messages to be attached to a particular patient if necessary and makes the staff much more responsive.

In addition, all of the applications allow users to post flags to patients and to specify exactly where the flag should appear. For example, KCRS's billing specialist uses flags to alert the appointment scheduler if they need to treat someone as a cash patient. This flag appears whenever the patient is accessed in Appointment Scheduler. Flags are also used to alert staff of patients with special needs such as a physical impairment requiring extra time during their visit.

Because KCRS is a surgical practice, their business is heavily referral-based, with 95% of patients coming from outside referrals. Practice Partner Medical Billing and Appointment Scheduler work together to handle complex referral and authorization situations. The receptionist adds referring source information in Appointment Scheduler while on the phone with the patient. The office manager periodically runs a Referring Sources Report to identify who is referring patients to the office.

When KCRS receives the referral authorization, they enter the information into Medical Billing using the Cases feature. This feature allows the separate tracking of a specific patient problem, in this case a referral. KCRS creates a case for the referral with the authorization, insurance, and visit count information. "If a patient is referred to us and authorized for three visits, I can enter the authorization information in Medical Billing and Practice Partner will automatically track visits in Appointment Scheduler and alert the receptionist if the patient has exceeded the number of authorized visits," says Colleen Allen, Billing Specialist.

Medical Billing's customizable spreadsheet-style ledger also helps with referral and authorizations. KCRS set up their ledger to include an authorization number and a referring source. "This information is necessary for our claims. With Medical Billing's fully configurable ledger templates, we were able to set this up in minutes," explains Colleen Allen.