meridianEMR Saves Urology Patient Data with
Unlimited EHR Uptime
Practice
Boosts Patient Load by 20% without Staff Increase
Urology Associates of Kingsport, Kingsport, TN, James R. Herman, MD, PhD
When Dr. James R. Herman, MD, PhD, FACS joined the Urology Associates of Kingsport (UAK) based in Kingsport, Tennessee
as an associate, the practice operated similiar to every other urologist group. Like many practices, UAK struggled with
a burdensome paper chart system that required hours of manual dictation at the end of the day. Restless, the physicians
knew this time could be better served in meeting the demands of a growing practice. Years later, with federal government-mandated
deadlines looming, Dr Herman knew the practice had to take a progressive stance regarding the conversion of the practice to
electronic medical records with an objective of improving the overall patient care experience through technology.
PRACTICE NEEDS
UAK needed a system that would eliminate the burden of a paper dependent practice,
increase quality of patient care and office efficiency through technology. The physicians reviewed several EHR companies
before unanimously choosing meridianEMR.
Herman
recalls traveling to Colorado to visit a colleague whose practice was already using a template driven electronic health record
(EHR) system that was made by the same company who made their practice manager software. "Seeing how flawed this
system was, I realized that meridianEMR's product was exactly what we needed," he said. With this, the practice
implemented meridianEMR's Urology-specific EHR. The system was seamlessly integrated through meridianEMR's PM interface
with UAK's existing practice management software and performed to expectations and beyond.
meridianEMR's "Blended Model"
Not too long ago, the practice experienced a significant failure from its local
EHR server. An event that easily could have turned catastrophic for the five physician practice, if not for meridianEMR's
Blended Model, a major technology component of the mXchange client network.
"Little did we know that immediately when our server crashed, merdianEMR's "Blended Model" kicked
in. This is a backup web server with real time synchronization that automatically activates when your local EHR server
goes offline for any reason. It was simply amazing, because we totally lost our EHR server without compromising any
patient data that was collected during this down time. From a patient care perspective, any interruption in service
compromises our ability to provide the best care to our patients. meridianEMR's transaction based redundant technology
set it apart from other EHR systems on the market, providing real value to physician practices' requirements for uninterrupted
patient care and service," recalls Dr. Herman.
PRODUCTIVITY AND EFFICIENCY INCREASES
Dr. Herman worked closely with meridianEMR to customize a number of templates which had made note-taking during the
examination far easier than the practice's previous paper-based system. As the doctors conduct examinations, the notes
from the visit are being taken as the exam is proceeding. This inherited time has resulted in the practice increasing
its patient load by 20 percent.
"meridianEMR's
comprehensive templates have eliminated the time-consuming task of manually completing a patient's record, allowing me to
spend more time solving their problems rather than simply documenting them. I can take care of an entire plan for
a patient at the click of a button. Additionally, we have freed up so much time that we were able to expand our practice
by 20%," added Herman.
BENEFITS
With meridianEMR, the Urology Associates of Kingsport, were
able to see more patients, increase the overall practice revenue through stronger coding, eliminate paper charts and storage,
improve government compliance, improve overall office efficiency, and enjoy the benefits of meridianEMR's "Blended Model".
Physicians are seeing 20% more patients on clinic days without
increasing their staffing levels.
This
increase in patient encounters has resulted in the scheduling of more surgeries a corresponding increase in revenues
from surgeries.
Improved documentation
has led to faster, more complete billings for a greater patient load.
The practice has been able to slash the cost of transcription services and chart storage space
No more worries about data being compromised due to server or
power issues.
Today, work-life balance
has been achieved, productivity is much improved, product support and service is 100% reliable, and very much accessible.
Most importantly, the physicians at Urology Associates of Kingsport have met their critically important self-set goal of enhancing
the patient care experience through technology.
