Practice Partner User Profile -- Urology

If you thought an electronic medical record (EMR) only worked well in an academic setting or in primary care, it's time to think again. Practice Partner Patient Records from Practice Partners can help meet the challenges that all practices face and can be easily customized to meet the unique needs of a specialty practice.

A prime example is Urology Specialists and Associates of Dallas, Texas. They have been using Practice Partner for several years, and according to Dr. Melvin Kadesky, "Patient Records works great with a specialty practice. We can't live without it." The practice includes eight physician and two offices: the main office in Dallas and a satellite office in the Dallas suburb of Plano. The two offices have a total of 18 examination rooms and receive 150 patient visits per day.

The office no longer keeps any paper charts. The time-consuming tasks of pulling, refiling, and searching for charts is a thing of the past. With, a patient's chart is always available at any workstation. The chart is also available to any number of users at the same time.

The office staff has found that with instantaneous access to the chart, work flows more smoothly. When patient problems come up that require quick access to the chart, they're easier to solve. Routine tasks, such as prescription refills, can be performed more quickly and efficiently. According to the Office Manager, Angela Clark, "Everyone has access to the record. Problems can be solved more quickly and easily. Patient progress is easier to monitor. With Patient Records, the office has the tools and information it needs to help the patient."

Patient Records makes communication more efficient. The staff appreciates the ease and convenience of communicating with the internal e-mail that is part of the Patient Records program. The system also allows staff to attach the electronic chart with e-mail messages so providers can make quick and definitive responses to patient issues. And, with a modem, physicians can access the record from remote locations, such as their home, another office, or the hospital.

The EMR has been fully integrated into daily practice at Urology Associates. Progress notes are either dictated by the physician and transcribed or are entered directly using specialized urology templates. Reports, such as lab and pathology, are summarized by the physician and then either dictated and transcribed or manually entered into the record.

Urology Specialists finds the Patient Records templates especially useful. "We can design templates that are customized to the procedures we perform. They make it easy to enter progress notes," commented Dr. Kadesky. The templates were easy to design by the practice and required no specialized programming skills. There are custom designed templates for nearly all the procedures performed by the physicians. For example, there are templates for vasectomies and for ultrasound of the prostate. With the templates, progress notes can be entered into the record quickly and easily.

As Angela Clark explained, "When a vasectomy is done, most of the information that needs to be entered is the same for every patient. The anatomy is the same; the procedure is the same." As a result, the physician only needs to enter the information that is different for each patient, making it very quick and efficient to create notes. Another advantage: the notes are always legible and consistent.

With Patient Records, image templates can also be designed. Image templates are drawings of an organ, such as the prostate or bladder. They are especially helpful for documenting medical procedures. According to Dr. Kadesky, "If you are looking at a prostate or a bladder, you can draw in the location of a tumor or other abnormality directly on to the image template. If surgery has been performed, that can also be easily documented." These images are particularly useful if the patient requires follow-up visits or procedures.

Urology Specialists uses all of the Practice Partner products: Practice Partner Patient Records; Appointment Scheduler, a multi-clinic scheduler; and Medical Billing, a complete practice management system. The programs are integrated, which makes many tasks easier to perform. Data entry is easier because all the programs are updated with just one entry. For example, a change of address only needs to be entered once and it will automatically be updated in all the programs. Generating reports is also easier because information can be shared by the three programs.

Urology Specialists has found that Practice Partner Patient Records meets the unique needs of the urology practice. They have given up a room full of paper charts, have eliminated the problem of missing and unavailable charts, and have reduced the staff overhead dedicated to managing medical records. In exchange, they have gained an electronic record customized to their practice, charts that are always available, improved staff efficiency, and better service to their patients. It sounds like a good trade.