Practice Partner User Profile -- Rheumatology

Rheumatology Associates is a 3 doctor specialty practice located in the city of Youngstown, Ohio. Before installing electronic medical records, the clinic was wrestling with the inefficiencies of the paper chart in terms of access. "I was frustrated with the inability to access patient charts from home," remembers Ralph Rothenberg, M.D., a partner at Rheumatology Associates. "When I would get irregular lab results at 10:00 at night, I would have to drive into the office to review the patient's chart - many times finding that the irregular results were normal for that patient. This was becoming increasingly more annoying."

Dr. Rothenberg decided to explore an alternative to the paper chart. The electronic medical record (EMR) seemed like the perfect solution. Not only could charts be viewed remotely, but the organization and efficiency that the EMR brought to the clinical and administrative aspects of the practice were also attractive.

"Another feature of the electronic medical record that was appealing was the ease with which progress notes could be legibly created," notes Dr. Rothenberg. "This is particularly important for specialists, since Medicare requires that all notes to primary care doctors from referring physicians be legible."

After deciding that an EMR was the logical solution, Dr. Rothenberg began searching for the right system. "After extensively researching all of the EMRs on the market, I decided that Practice Partner Patient Records by Practice Partners was the right choice for me," explains Dr. Rothenberg. "The feature set and intuitive user interface that Patient Records offers is far superior to the competition."

Prior to implementing the system, Dr. Rothenberg was dictating all progress notes, as well as follow-up notes to the referring physician. Dr. Rothenberg was able to eliminate much of this dictation, thanks to Patient Records' clinical and letter templates. These templates allow office visits to be directly documented in a complete and efficient manner, and correspondence to be created with the click of a button. "Because we are a specialty clinic, I created and modified many of the templates myself," says Dr. Rothenberg. "I was pleased with the ease with which these templates could be created." Now, the physicians have the best of both worlds. "Although I still use direct entry to document most of the progress note, Patient Records is versatile enough to allow the use of voice recognition software (Dragon's NaturallySpeaking Medical Suite) to dictate the portions that require special documentation not covered in the template," states Dr. Rothenberg.

In addition to making progress note documentation more efficient, Patient Records has also saved Dr. Rothenberg a considerable amount of time in his office. "Being a specialty practice, most of the time when I see a patient, I need to create a follow-up note to be sent to their primary physician," explains Dr. Rothenberg. This used to be accomplished with Dr. Rothenberg dictating each letter. Now, thanks to the templates contained in Patient Records, Dr. Rothenberg is able to instantaneously create a follow-up note for the primary physician. "A couple of minutes after the visit, the chart and letter are completed," states Dr. Rothenberg. "This not only allows the letter and chart to reach the primary physician days before the patient, but it has also allowed me to leave the office 30 minutes earlier than I previously could."

With the introduction of Patient Records' templates and the ability to incorporate voice recognition software, Dr. Rothenberg has also been able to eliminate his transcription bill. "Before I implemented the system, I had a transcriptionist working for 8 hours a day," remembers Dr. Rothenberg. "Now I no longer use a transcriptionist! This has reduced my overhead."

Rheumatology Associates also appreciates both the clinical and administrative benefits of the medication list provided by Practice Partner Patient Records. " Patient Records allows me to look at all the medications a patient is on, and easily check for medications that are about to run out. This allows me to refill all the medications at once - eliminating the number of patient phone calls requesting refills by about 2/3," states Dr. Rothenberg. "This reduction in phone calls has helped improve both the efficiency and productivity of the front office."

Patient Records also gives Rheumatology Associates the ability to easily track medications. "When a drug was recalled, we would have to manually go through each patient chart searching for patients prescribed the medication," remembers Dr. Rothenberg. "Now, we can query our entire patient population in a matter of seconds." This proved extremely important for the practice when their malpractice insurance company went out of business and they were searching for a new insurer. "Our new insurer wanted a list of all our patients who were on Phen-Fen before they would insure us," explains Dr. Rothenberg. "With Patient Records, answering this question was easy."

Rheumatology Associates uses both Practice Partner Patient Records and Appointment Scheduler . These two applications are completely integrated, which streamlines data entry, enhances communication, and makes reports easier to generate. When information is entered in one application, it updates both applications. For example, when new patient information is entered into Appointment Scheduler, a patient record is automatically created. A single patient number can be used for both of the applications. Communication is enhanced because notes entered in one application will also appear in the other. For example, the doctor can flag the patient record with a note of instructions for the patient; when the patient schedules an appointment, the note will appear in Appointment Scheduler and the patient can be reminded of the instructions. "The integrated solution has allowed our office to operate more efficiently," states Dr. Rothenberg. "The sharing of data across applications has greatly reduced redundant data entry."