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Lakeshore Dermatology and Skin Renewal Center opened in August of 2003 and began using our document imaging system immediately. Currently this office has a staff of 1 physician, 1 PA, 1 office manager, 6 nurses, 2 receptionists, and 1 biller and they see 85 patients a day. A disaster protection plan has been implemented by maintaining a copy of the electronic patient records offsite.
Office Manager's Comments
Janet Bluhm is the office manager, with 17 years experience in an 8-physician cardiology practice and 5 years as office manager with an OBGYN practice, and has been the office manager of Lakeshore Dermatology & Skin Renewal Center since it opened its doors. This is what she has to say about our document imaging system:
"I would never work in an office that didn't have a document imaging system again."
"90% of patient's calls are handled on the first call which makes for happy patients. When patients want something, they want it right now. They get agitated if they have to wait. They don't wait with this system."
"It is so easy to use that the staff loves it; no one would want to go back to paper."
"When the architect asked where the filing room was to be in the initial meeting, we told him that we didn't need one because we didn't have any paper files."
"The whole office is more efficient. Overall efficiency is everything. We are not waiting for anybody. There is at least a 15% increase in efficiency and for some people much more."
Challenges Faced
Without a document imaging system the following numbers represent the number of file pulls they would have to perform daily. With our document imaging system this time consuming task is completely eliminated.
85 patients seen daily
20-30 labs and biopsies
85 transcriptions
40-60 phone calls
85 appointments scheduled
15-20 letters to referring physician
data entry on demographic sheets
Staff members estimate that it would take them at least 60 seconds per chart pull and 60 seconds to return the charts to the file system. Based on these numbers, our document imaging system saves 11-12 hours per day in personnel cost for the practice. They also estimate that in a paper filing system, 30% of the files would be out of the file room and the staff would need to look throughout the office to find the file.
Success Strategy
With our document imaging system:
Everything gets scanned into the system.
The doctor gets the originals and they are scanned after he signs the paper documents.
The demographic sheet is scanned along with the patient's driver license, insurance card and HIPAA forms, thereby eliminating the need for data entry.
Billings go out the same day thereby increasing the cash flow by 2-weeks.
They have eliminated the need for a copy machine and related cost such as maintenance, toner, and paper.
The referring physician can be mailed or emailed the results depending on the office's preference; thereby providing improved service to referring physician.
Onsite and offsite storage cost eliminated.
File cabinets, paper file folders and cost to set up new patient file eliminated.
90% of patient's calls are handled on the first call.
Scheduling of appointments is more efficient.
Office is clean and less cluttered.
Easier to administer HIPAA.
11-12 hours per day is saved in filing personnel costs.
There is an overall increase in office efficiency of at least 15%.
Benefits
Physicians are now turning away from EMR systems to document imaging to attain the benefits of electronic documents. Training on the system takes less than two hours, so it integrates into the practice in a very short period of time. You will save money and improve patient satisfaction. 90% of all patients' calls can be dealt with immediately, eliminating patient frustration. The biggest payoff is that everyone in the office will be happier because patient information can be accessed instantly without having to look for the file. Overall office efficiency is improved by eliminating the inevitable bottlenecks associated with a paper filing system.
Contact us at (616) 847-5055 or complete the contact form if you would like to see a demonstration of our software.
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