E-Scan Paperless Software from Fox Meadows Fits President’s Stimulus Package

When it comes to electronic scanning of patient’s medical records, Fox Meadow’s E-Scan is just what President Obama ordered.

President Barack Obama’s nearly $800 billion stimulus package has included several endowments for improving the state of medical record-keeping in the United States, in an effort to modernize and improve overall patient care along with hospital efficiency. High on his list is to eliminate the laborious and cumbersome manual scanning of millions of documents relevant to a patient’s medical history and ongoing care.

Physicians and clinicians of varied description, together with their harried staffs, currently spend an estimated jillion hours each year searching for - and when they find them - searching through, patient files for essential information. That figure may be conservative. Says John Doe S. Smith, M.D., based in East Greenacres, Rhode Island, “We used our state-of-the-art little green abacus to figure it out. In 2008, my staff and I spent 1.64 jillion hours searching for patient records. That’s up from 2007, when we spent 1.47 jillion hours doing the same thing.”

Yet despite this millstone of work dragging many practices into a kind of perpetual drudgery, some physicians remain hesitant to implement an Electronic Medical Record system, but would still like to be a paperless office. Others are considering implementing Medinotes e EMR and would enhance their scanning capabilities if there only was a way. Fox Meadows is offering an option that just might work: MediNotes eScan. Its benefits are many. Did you know that eScan will improve office productivity, allow for quick retrieval of documents (which saves money), and even helps to ensure patient privacy? By setting specific permissions on a document or document types, a clinician can provide only those users who NEED to view a document access to it; eScan also tracks who has viewed, modified, or exported a document and on what date or dates. For multiple practice locations, eScan works even better. The system allows medical staff to easily share documents with other employees across multiple practice locations. Scanning and storing files electronically has yet another built-in advantage also – you can rest assured that documents remain safe and backed-up in case of a fire or other unexpected natural disaster.

E-Scan is an intermediate solution that if implemented on a wide scale across the United States, might prove to some skeptics that the President’s ambitious stimulus package, or at least a crucial component of it, is actually working.

To learn more about electronic medical records, emr software and medical billing software, visit Foxmeadows.com.

Fox Meadows EMR Software Is Just What Obama Ordered

Medinotes E from Fox Meadows complies with every criterion that the new administration could possibly ask for.

Medinotes E is already a fixture in the offices of some 50,000 clinicians nationwide. If there’s one company that is ready to fill the needs of the President’s new economic stimulus package - in the arena of EMR software and the long overdue modernization health care in America - it’s Fox Meadows. For instance, our Practice Management Software is helping thousands of physicians in more than 20 medical specialties automate their practices with intuitive functionality – intuitive because it’s flexible to a myriad of office environments. Imagine essential patient information that IS available at the point of care. Add into the mix electronic prescribing capabilities, chief complaint templates to make documentation fast and efficient, patient graphics to illustrate diagnostic and treatment information, and patient instructions that can be printed or emailed. If he experienced a demonstration of Medinotes E in action, President Obama would be surely be impressed and in his eloquent oratorical style, he’d probably mention the obvious: Medinotes e maximizes a physician’s time for direct patient care in the most efficient way imaginable.

Administration officials might observe how our competitor’s EMR and practice management software can be confusing and require a physician’s staff to navigate from screen to screen for the correct information that’s needed STAT – as a few of the bugs have yet to be worked out in their software packages. By contrast, Medinotes e uses a new approach based on clinical work flow that has an additional benefit of reducing training time for busy medical staff. Based on a facsimile of multi-tasking concepts designed for internet users, convenient tabs in Medinotes e allows physicians and their helpers to efficiently manage the multitude of tasks inherent in a clinical encounter. The system’s capabilities are uncanny: Medinotes e can display multiple patients, encounter notes, work flow items, patient messages, alerts, and inter-office communications.

Medinotes e from Fox Meadows has to be precisely what President Obama ordered.

To learn more about electronic medical records, emr software and medical billing software, visit Foxmeadows.com.

President Obama’s Call for Universal EMR

Barack Obama’s call for pervasive computerization and electronic medical records is ambitious and focused, but implementation issues remain challenging.

President Obama’s speech lining up EMR and other health care niceties (in his ambitious stimulus package designed to improve a U.S. economy) is as precarious as any encountered since the Great Depression sounded laudatory and necessary. “If we’re to improve the quality of our health care while lowering its costs, we will have to make the immediate investments necessary to ensure that within five years, all of America’s medical records are computerized. This will cut waste, eliminate red tape, and reduce the need to repeat expensive medical tests. But it just won’t save billions of dollars and thousands of jobs – it will save lives by reducing the deadly, but preventable, medical errors that pervade our health care system.”

In an ideal world, the President would be justly optimistic, but Obama’s goal is hardly a new one. In fact, President George W. Bush, Obama’s unpopular predecessor, set a similar time period in announcing his EMR initiative buttressed on a series of regional programs. The Bush initiative, like many Bush initiatives, failed. But can Universal EMR work?

America’s largest institutions won’t have to start from scratch. Varying implementations of EMR are already in place at Veteran’s Administration’s hospitals across the country. One hurdle at the VA is that electronic documents have been predominately utilized to facilitate business outcomes, rather than patient care. What EMR systems need to do is provide cognitive support to medical practitioners, in the manner that certain EMR systems already do in hundreds of private medical practices nationwide. If a computerized medical records system is too cumbersome and too rigid, it might not be much of an improvement; but, if an EMR system is user-friendly, and is flexible, it would be a huge step in a positive direction. If a Federal EMR standardized system would only follow the lead of certain packages of state-of-the-art EMR software already available in the private sector, President Obama’s ambitious goals are more likely to be realized.

David York is with Fox Meadows, a provider of electronic medical records software, EMR Software, and medical billing software. To learn more about electronic medical records, emr software and medical billing software, visit Foxmeadows.com.

President Obama Continues to Push for Electronic Medical Records

Since he was candidate Obama, the new President has been calling for a comprehensive electronic medical records system with the U.S. Health Care juggernaut.

In his Plan for a Healthy America, Presidential candidate Barack Obama called for lowering costs through investment in electronic health information systems at the Federal level, acknowledging that paper-based medical records are cumbersome and error-prone. In several of his stump speeches, he drummed home the point that processing paper claims was also twice as expensive. While still a candidate, he pledged to invest $10 billion a year through 2013 to move the U.S. health care system, a juggernaut if there ever was one, towards a broad adoption of standards-based electronic health care systems, including electronic medical records.

In his December 8, 2008, radio address, President-elect Obama discussed his extensive plans for stimulating the economy. Included in his plans was a significant investment in EMRs. “In addition to connecting our libraries and schools to each other through the internet, we must modernize our health care system. This won’t just save jobs – it will save lives. We will make sure that every doctor’s office and hospital in this country is using cutting edge technology and electronic medical records so that we can cut red tape, prevent medical mistakes, and help save billions of dollars each year.”

As President Obama’s February 2009 stimulus package neared its historic passage, the President gave a speech in Washington, D.C. continuing his clarion call for providing electronic patient records throughout the United States within the next five years. Explained the President in the impressive oratory style that has already come to define him, “To improve the quality of our health care while lowering its cost, we will make the immediate investments necessary to ensure that within five years, all of America’s medical records are computerized. This will cut waste, eliminate red tape, and reduce the need to repeat expensive medical tests. But it just won’t save billions of dollars and thousands of jobs – it will save lives by reducing the deadly, but preventable, medical errors that pervade our health care system.”

On this issue of EMR software, Barack Obama has remained as steadfast as a straight arrow.

David York is with Fox Meadows, a provider of electronic medical records software, EMR Software, and medical billing software. To learn more about electronic medical records, emr software and medical billing software, visit Foxmeadows.com.

Fox Meadows Medinotes e for Chiropractic Revitalizes North Carolina Practice

North Carolina Chiropractor used to making adjustments for disorganization no longer has to do so.

Larry Blaisdell has been a chiropractor for eleven years. While he’s always maintained a busy practice, it was beset with what he calls “disorganization issues.”

“My assistants would misplace a patient’s medical history, especially as it applied to chiropractic care, and I’d lose three or four hours hunting for that one file,” he says. “It got to be more than annoying, it was plain frustrating.” What Dr. Blaisdell used to do was adjust to his office dysfunction. “I’d make adjustments for time I knew I’d lose to disorganization issues,” he asserts. “but the time allotted for these adjustments kept increasing.”

Forced to do something proactive, he purchased Medinotes e for Chiropractic from Fox Meadows. Medinotes e has revitalized the Blaisdell practice. “Everything is much better now,” he asserts.

Medinotes e for Chiropractic is an electronic medical record system with exceptional features and functionality. Newly redesigned, users now have complete control over the system and are able to create custom displays and intake screens, add or remove items from the hierarchical tree, and quickly toggle between multiple patient folders. This flexible software program has been broken down into four convenient views: Practice View, Patient View, Document View, and Object View.

“Practice view is global,” Blaisdell agrees. It gives a chiropractor a global view of events occurring within his/her practice. A chiropractor’s staff is able to review all Patient/Practice alerts, messages, patient-flow, pending results from reference laboratories, pending histories from Instant Medical History, automated tasks, and more.

Patient View is able to display multiple patients simultaneously; each with their own color-coded tab. Patient View Screens can be completely customized.

Document View is actually a second global view, enabling a chiropractic office to quickly filter all Medinotes e documents by document type, provider, or date. It can follow-up such sorting with equally relevant printing – printing to specific printer settings designated for that document type.

The Object View is also exciting. This feature gives chiropractors an opportunity to review, customize, and save templates and examination dialogs in one convenient area.

No wonder Medinotes e from Fox Meadows Software is revitalizing chiropractic practices.

To learn more about Electronic medical records, emr software, medical billing software, visit Foxmeadows.com.

Fox Meadows EMR Software Medinotes E Is HIPAA Friendly

Medinotes E evaluation method is the key to easier HIPAA compliance.

Medinotes E makes life easier for thousands of clinicians struggling to comply with the ponderous Federal HIPAA regulations established in 1996, so much so, that the software solution has been certified for the regulations by the HIPAA Academy, a national HIPAA educator and certification specialist. This certification accords that Medinotes e 4.3 meets or exceeds the HIPAA standards required for an electronic medical record software, but just don’t take the Academy’s word for it.

The E-Accelerator Methodology was used to review HIPAA requirements from the perspective of a Medinotes e patient. All HIPAA mandates apply to these clients. HIPAA Academy has attempted to identify the maximum number of situations where a service or feature in Medinotes e could provide relief. Recommendations were grouped under the most appropriate mandate, with highest impact recommendations listed first.

The evaluation method used is essential to indicate if an individual ChartingPlus response is “acceptable” or “unacceptable.” In instances where recommendations were accomplished quicker than suggested, in a way that provided greater protection, an “exceptional” evaluation is given.

The overall response has proved satisfactory or exceptional. Every area considered met the criteria of “acceptable” or “exceptional.” The product particularly excels in how privacy is ensured by embedded security features.

Fox Meadows has always valued confidentiality, integrity, and availability as a critically important triumvirate. This three-pronged list of attributes is evident in every product we install, as shown in our approach and designated product features. Our staff strives to look beyond the specific request to discover broader applications. Medinotes e, for instance, logs every change a user makes. Confidentiality is reiterated when all scripts sent to users are encrypted. Sometimes our staff feels compelled to “blaze a new trail,” if methods used in the past are proving inadequate. If a process needs to be redesigned or even replaced, it gets done. That’s the Fox Meadows mandate for excellence.

To learn more about Electronic medical records, emr software, medical billing software, visit Foxmeadows.com.

EMR Packages Can Help Chiropractors

A busy chiropractic practice can benefit from electronic medical record software packages in significant ways. The improved functionality and flexibility of these packages can facilitate record-keeping to an extraordinary extent.

V.P., a neurology-inclined practitioner based in Rhode Island, used to misplace patient records on a daily basis. “It was annoying, and potentially dangerous,” he says. “Our system consisted of hard copy folders, all paper, with no electronic interfaces. Folders were stacked in odd corners of the office, and were subject to my idiosyncratic whims as to where they might be found. Our situation was precarious to say the least.”

Recently, V.P. has acquired a state-of-the-art electronic medical records system, providing a comprehensive database for patient information, histories of treatment, diagnoses, and follow-up.

The new system has required a minimal learning curve, as navigation is simple; note windows and other graphics allow for straightforward access of information. With his new EMR package designed especially for chiropractors, V.P. can follow every patient while multi-tasking with impunity.

To purchase his EMR software package, V.P. explored the features and functionality of more than a dozen similar packages which were available for his clinical specialty. Some were confusing and required his staff to migrate from screen to screen for the information they were seeking. “We were looking for a system with less navigation, not more,” V.P. asserts.

EMR packages which utilize tab concepts for simplicity and ease of navigation were the most attractive options. Tabs in an electronic medical record allow for an unprecedented level of multi-tasking, which in turn contributes to an extremely well-organized and efficient chiropractic office environment. V.P. ended up choosing an EMR solution that offered a variety of views. His choice of EMR package contained a global view of events occurring within his practice; was able to display multiple patients at a time, each with their own color-coded tab; allowed for a comprehensive sorting of relevant documents; and also allowed for the opportunity to review, customize, and save templates.

David York is with Fox Meadows, a provider of electronic medical records software, EMR Software, and medical billing software. To learn more about Electronic medical records, emr software, medical billing software, visit Foxmeadows.com.

HIPAA Regulations Still Remain in Effect

Although most provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 remain in effect, adhering to these regulations is now easier due to improvements in electronic medical records software.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), enacted into law 13 years ago in 1996, remains in force. Within 18 months of the regulations being enacted, the U.S. Secretary for Health & Human Services adopted a set of standards from those already approved by private standards developing organizations. These were for certain electronic health transactions including claims, enrollment, eligibility, payment, and coordination of benefits. The most relevant administrative provisions were (and still are):

1.

A mandate on providers and health plans, with a strict timetable. According to this mandate, providers and health plans are required to use the standards for the specified electronic transactions now that they have been adopted. Plans and providers may comply directly, or may use a health care clearinghouse. Certain health plans, in particular workers compensation, are not covered.
2.

Privacy. The HHS Secretary recommended privacy standards for health information to Congress. These remain in effect.
3.

Preemption of state law. The bill supersedes state laws, except where the Secretary determines that the state law is necessary to prevent fraud and abuse, to ensure appropriate state regulation of insurance or health plans, addresses controlled substances, or for other purposes. Privacy regulations do not preempt state laws that impose more stringent requirements. These provisions do not limit a state’s ability to require health plan reporting or audits.
4.

Penalties. The bill imposes civil financial penalties and prison for certain violations.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that certain applications of electronic medical records software have evolved to the point where compliance with HIPAA regulations has been made much easier. Certain features of these relevant software modules can often identify situations where methodology relief exists. Conclusions can be drawn, privacy concerns can be met, and even encryption of scripts is available in some instances.

David York is with Fox Meadows, a provider of electronic medical records software, EMR Software, and medical billing software. To learn more about Electronic medical records, emr software, and medical billing software, visit Foxmeadows.com.