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VeinDraw™ at the ACP Meeting

With a great success, the VTS's own VeinDraw™, has been shown at the ACP meeting at Marco Island.

How to Increase Your Profits, Productivity, Quality of Life, and Quality of Patient Care:
Get a Good EMR (part 2 of 2)
By J. Gordon Wright, MD, FACS, RVT, Founder of Midwest Vein Centers.


So I've confessed. I'm a bit of a computer "nut" and have searched diligently for the past 20 years for an EMR that does not severely frustrate me. If you read Part I of this article (October/November Vein Therapy News) or if you visited the VeinDraw™ booth at the ACP 22nd Annual Congress, then you know that I've given up on my mission to find the best EMR by simply enlisting the help of a seasoned professional programmer to design my own EMR specifically for vein care1. As promised, Part II of this article will describe some of the softer, "non-core" ancillary benefits to be considered when evaluating an EMR, and I will provide specific examples of what those non-core benefits should look like.

Softer Benefits


If you have evaluated an EMR based on its ability to deliver the three "core" benefits and if you are still undecided, then almost as important as the three "core" attributes are four "softer" benefits of an EMR.


Two of these "softer" benefits might be called "quality of life issues" — and I am not talking about the patient's quality of life, I am talking about the quality of life for the doctors, the nurses and the office staff. The other two "softer" benefits are image enhancement and data-mining. So the four "softer" benefits of an EMR are:

 

  1. Improved Quality of Working Life for the Doctor.
  2. Improved Quality of Working Life for the Staff.
  3. Improved Image with your Patients
  4. Data mining to:
  • Keep your finger on the pulse of your practice,
  • Monitor for changes in the criteria for medical necessity and predetermination policies,
  • Analyze and adjust for changes in reimbursement for various CPT, ICD9 and modifier combinations.


Improved Quality of Life for the Doctor


Question for the doctor: How many times have you been standing outside an exam room door, running a little late, and flipping back and forth through a paper chart trying to figure out what vein diseases am I dealing with, what vein disease has been treated, and when, by who, and on what side? A good EMR should eliminate all these frustrations.


Since going paperless, I have never taken more than 30 seconds to review even a complex chart, and I typically spend only about 10 seconds reviewing an average chart before walking into the room. I have also found that I am much more up to date with the patient's pathology, treatment history, future plans, financial status, pre-determination status and concerns the patient has raised during phone calls.


Consequently, I no longer walk into exam rooms like I used to — asking my patient questions that should be recorded in the paper chart but are not, or are recorded, but I didn't find during my speed-reading attempt of hard-to-read handwritten notes! The result has been that my patients feel better for having chosen me to be their doctor - and that is a huge benefit to me. Having complete, accurate and up-to-date information.