Dr. Ara Keshishian in Southern California
The Situation
Dr. Ara Keshishian is a board certified general and an experienced bariatric surgeon. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the American Society of the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. His practice specializes in the surgical correction of complications of gastric bypass and adjustable gastric banding. His practice is located in Southern California, with a satellite office in the San Joaquin Valley region of Central California. www.dssurgery.com
Established in 1999, his Central Valley Bariatric clinic has a detailed and highly individualized personal program tailored for each patient, developed during the early consultation stage and followed for continuity of care during the critical post-operative period. Dr. Keshishian believes that structured follow up is important for a successful outcome for each of his patients. Careful follow up reduces complications and helps to ensure long-term success. Every patient is assessed and carefully monitored in terms of pre-operative history, overall health, surgical course and post-operative care.
To enable this detailed assessment, Dr. Keshishian uses an EMR to track his patient’s medical conditions at every stage to provide the best possible health care outcomes.
The Challenge
When Dr. Keshishian opened his private practice, a fully developed EMR software solution did not exist so he used a paper-based system. However, within five years, he realized that an EMR could help streamline the clinical and business aspects of his clinic.
"I was really looking forward to benefiting from the efficiencies of using an EMR and practice management system to help me keep track of the many complicated cases I see," says Dr. Keshishian. "But my excitement was soon dashed. Most of the early EMRs shined in one or another. Some were very good on the medical records side, but not user friendly with the business aspect. Others had better functionality as a billing software, but were nothing more than a word processor when it came to the medical records portion."
The Solution
After working with demo models of a number of software solutions, he chose ABELMed EHR-EMR/PM software. Because of his need for remote connectivity between his two clinics and the independent billing agency, Dr. Keshishian says he liked the strong functionality and remote access capability of ABELMed’s EMR.
He was also sold on the system by the intuitive nature of the software’s overall navigation and design. "The ABELMed workflow design is very logical. A user does not need a lot of training to use the system right away," says Dr. Keshishian. "If you think you should ‘click here’ to access some information on the patient contact screen, for example, then you should go there. My staff and I really appreciate its ease of use."
Dr. Keshishian says that ABELMed’s document management functionality is another critical feature. "Being able to scan and load a particular patient document from anywhere on the network, regardless of office location, is very helpful and is done very easily. This clearly increases office productivity and cuts down on human error during uploading information."
These examples illustrate just some of ways that ABELMed software has made a positive difference in the management of Dr. Keshishian’s practice.
The Relationship
Over the last two years, Dr. Keshishian and his staff have become more proficient with the use of ABELMed’s EMR features.
"Support from ABEL is excellent because they are accessible 24 hours 7 days a week. I’m happy that ABEL keeps in touch with me on an ongoing basis and continues to improve and add innovative modules, features and functionalities. One unique aspect of the company, in general, is their willingness to list and accept suggestions from practicing physicians. Too frequently there are disconnects between what software engineers design and how the real world functions. That is not the case with ABELMed’s corporate culture. They take input from physicians and work on software innovations surprisingly fast. Additional training on the new modules is also available if we need it."
For reference and ongoing learning, his administrators take advantage of ABELMed’s user-friendly online help, video tutorials and documentation.
The Result
Dr. Keshishian says that although an EMR shifts some responsibility to the practitioner, there are significant efficiencies and productivity gains. He indicates that he stays in touch with his patients and their referring physicians with ease by the email interface that is built in to the ABELMed software. There is also no need for a transcription service since he uses voice recognition software that he purchased for his Mac desktop.
In addition, "I saw a patient yesterday; I coded the encounter and procedure, signed off on it electronically and sent it to my billing agency, where they sent the invoice out the same day. Had it not been for ABEL’s secure web-based solution, the same process would have taken a month to send out the statement. Also, I could not manage two satellite offices and a third distance billing agency - all virtually connected. There’s no question, ABELMed was the right decision for me and my practice."
Dr. Keshishian also states that, "ABELMed EHR-EMR/PM is an incredible asset that enhances my office management and improves the quality of care that we deliver to individual patients, both pre and post-op."
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