Podiatry Practices Are Moving Toward a Paperless Environment to Meet Incentive Requirements

Online, December 28, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Carolina Foot & Ankle Associates, PLLC, a growing podiatry practice with three locations in the Piedmont area, recently selected to implement advanced electronic prescribing software to continue their move toward a truly paperless environment. The eDoc eRx Advanced solution is offered in conjunction with eDoc Health, the practice's hybrid document management solution from Biz Technology Solutions, Inc.

After struggling for years to find an appropriate electronic health record (EHR) system that would fit their needs, Carolina Foot & Ankle Associates selected eDoc Health in 2009 to bridge the clinical, administrative, and financial gaps that a traditional EHR could not achieve.

"Our challenges were a bit unique. We were using a mix of an EHR system and paper charts; it was confusing for everyone. To improve efficiencies in the office, we needed to move to a better system" said Practice Administrator Julia Gold. "We used to spend a lot of time each day in search of something; a big bulk of time was spent digging charts looking for specific papers or searching for the charts themselves, and that has, on the whole, been eliminated."

In less than two years the practice realized a full return on investment through reduction of time spent on retrieving documents and charts, improving and automating patient flow processes, and moving the entire office toward a more paperless environment without changing their current workflow.

"The fact we could customize it to whatever fit our needs was great" said Ms. Gold. "We weren't limited by what someone else wanted it to look like. Other EHR systems were huge - more geared to primary care - and aimed at addressing all conditions for all patients. Additionally, the way they laid out things didn't fit our work flow and our processes."

In addition to streamlining efforts for office management, eDoc Health improved overall workflow for the providers as well. According to Dr. Robert Kukla, "eDoc's centralized data repository allows access to information by the entire staff. This lets me access other providers' information and input from other departments, such as scheduling and billing, so that pertinent information is readily available. eDoc makes me much more efficient by eliminating hunting for information."

After such a positive experience with the success of eDoc Health, Carolina Foot & Ankle Associates has chosen to expand the existing solution to include the eDoc eRx Advanced module to allow for electronic prescription of patient medicine.
"The primary reason for moving forward is the penalty. The second reason is improved efficiency. Right now we are keying in each patient's prescription information and updating it manually at each visit. Using the Rx module will allow that information to appear pre-completed for us, bypassing this time consuming task" said Ms. Gold.

The eDoc eRx Advanced solution functions as an add-on module to eDoc Health, and is powered by DrFirst™, the leader in electronic prescribing software. With eDoc eRx Advanced, practices can streamline access to patient prescriptions, identify potential drug interactions, and provide safe and easy prescription of patient medicine.

"Biz Technology Solutions looked at a lot of different options for electronic prescribing solutions, including the creation of our own interfaces. We selected DrFirst because of their dedication to the product, their path toward ONC certification, and their interoperability with over 200 EHRs in the marketplace" said Brian Ellis, Business Development Coordinator with Biz Technology Solutions.