Dr. Wilma Light in Latrobe, Pennsylvania
The Situation
With close to 2,400 patient visits per year, allergist Dr. Wilma Light finds that ABELMed’s EHR-EMR/PM software makes a big difference in helping to manage her busy practice and provide exceptional health care to an ever-growing number of patients.
As a sole practitioner, the Latrobe, Pennsylvania specialist sees patients with allergic rhinitis, asthma, hives and other allergic disorders. Her main philosophy is to prevent, control and manage these potentially acute reactions before they put people in the hospital.
Monitoring the progress of her patients, and keeping track of their follow-ups and referrals from their regular doctors, became increasingly difficult with her former paper-based system of scheduling and charting. As a result, Dr. Light began in late 2009 to investigate EMR solutions.
The Challenge
When Dr. Light opened her practice in 1976, a fully integrated EMR solution did not exist. But with today’s ever-present technology and her fellow doctors quickly adopting medical software, Dr. Light says she realized that she, too, could benefit from the efficiencies of using an EMR and practice management system.
"Collecting the right medical data and patient information was difficult enough, and being able to process it became much harder on paper," says Dr. Light. "An EMR is more organized and we are able to share information more efficiently with other physicians. It’s the right way to go. There’s a learning curve, but there are many advantages and more to come as new practice management modules are developed and added."
The Solution
In selecting an EMR platform, Dr. Light required a solution that would be easy to install and maintain, and take little time to be up and running within a couple of months.
"I reviewed three or four different EMR systems and spoke to happy ABELMed customers who had used this system for longer periods of time," says Dr. Light. "We had to think through exactly how it would work in this office, but clearly ABELMed’s EHR-EMR/PM software came out on top because of its power, ease of use and affordability."
After careful consideration and consultation with her office staff, Dr. Light grew certain that the ABELMed solution would work for her practice. She expected it to enhance patient care by increasing efficiency at all stages, from scheduling and patient arrivals to examinations, patient monitoring and billing.
Dr. Light says that ABELMed has helped her patient interactions become more thorough. "Because of its flexibility, I even wrote my own templates with a list of patient questions that I need to ask during an examination. I am covering more details than with the older paper-based system. It keeps me focused on the patient’s needs and provides better long-term health outcomes."
Another immediate benefit is the time saved in sending consult notes to referring doctors. "In the past, this task took a few days or even a full week because it required dictation, transcription, review and then faxing or mailing the letter to the referring doctor," recalls Dr. Light. "Now with the templates in place, it’s very easy to forward notes about a patient’s condition for follow-up."
ABELMed’s EHR-EMR/PM software not only helps Dr. Light keep track of her patients’ treatments more effectively, but also provides necessary documentation to the state’s Medicare program. "There’s not a lot of data that I need to report, but for some other doctors in a family practice I know, an EMR saves them a huge amount of time by pulling that information together automatically."
As another benefit, Dr Light says, "I clearly will not need as many filing cabinets in the future."
The Relationship
Customer support was the key factor that helped Dr. Light and her team to decide on ABELMed as an EMR partner. "When I spoke to the ABELMed support analysts, they were really receptive to questions and wanted to work closely with us," says the allergist. "They customized a solution just for us which included step-by-step training modules."
"We thought we would have to pay for a lot of training but the system is so easy to learn, we didn’t need any on-site training - although it was offered. We took advantage of the extensive training via the web, which was very convenient," Dr. Light adds.
Dr. Light is now working with ABELMed to plan and start using the software’s lab interface in the coming months. "This will be an excellent feature because when current lab work comes in, we have to manually chart the results and then notify the patient if there are any abnormalities. Once the lab module is installed, the results will come in automatically and any issues will be immediately flagged. We can then change patient treatment, within hours if needed, as opposed to the days it used to take."
Dr. Light is also looking forward to other customizable features including additional alerts. "Some of my patients require regular allergy injections, so we would like the system to signal us if a patient is late for their allergy immunotherapy injection. We could then remind the patient so that they could be up to date with their treatment. With such a system, we could proactively schedule their individualized follow-ups as well."
The Result
Dr. Light is delighted with her EMR solution. She says ABELMed continues to innovate and make her practice more efficient, allowing her to spend less time on administration and more time with patients in the examination room - where it really counts. Dr. Light hopes to see other doctors adopt an EMR as well, so that all health care providers can be integrated and organized across all specialties and general practices. She says, "The more we work with an EMR system, the better it is for everyone."
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