Accelerated Medical Practice Blog

Physician practices are concerned with finding EMR software that meets the needs and requirements of their particular organization. CTS Guides, a research company located in Rockville, MD offers a free Medical Software Selection Kit to help healthcare practices compare and review software options, define needs, prepare questions to ask vendors during demos, and gain more control over the software selection process. The kit provides software reviews, comparative product ratings including over 800 features, and a template...

I speak with clinics representing as many as 30 specialties, ranging from small practices of a few providers to practices consisting of hundreds of providers, nearly all of which have one thing in common: They are adopting new practice management systems. No Such Thing as Perfect PM System One thing is certain, no two clinics are alike. Not in workflow, billing needs, or in what they see as priorities for their organizations. In an ideal world,...

Many medical coding solutions and claim scrubbers promise a way to recover the savings from automating the charge entry process when using an EMR template. When looking for a solution, realize the ideal solution should not be an afterthought or one feature on a list of a hundred features. A coding solution should be carefully examined to determine: What types of rules does it include When are these rules applied Who reviews these errors and makes...

One of the most famous examples of the law of unintended consequences is Kudzu. Introduced to the United States in 1876, the plant was originally intended as erosion control. Currently spreading at a rate of 150,000 acres per year, the plant will overtake everything in its path when left unchecked. What are the unintended consequences created by your EMR implementation? Think back to charge entry employees. Usually, when keying charges into the PM system, the process is more complicated than simple data entry....

When you look at the typical project plan for an EMR implementation, the clinical components are typically the focal point: template selection and customization, physician training, clinical workflow, etc. Automating the charge capture and coding elements are usually placed at the bottom of the work list and may never be fully implemented. This gap in implementation planning often results in practices being forced to produce costly, manual workarounds as needed. This is a dangerous financial hazard...

When many EMRs were originally designed, charge capture and coding was not a major design objective. As an ancillary feature and benefit of EMRs—untested in the real world—that EMRs could replace the superbill began to appear in sales presentations. 

"Mind the gap" is a warning for passengers to take caution while crossing the gap between the train door and the railway platform. Introduced in 1969 on the London Underground, this warning also serves physician practices well as they pursue the important goal of implementing an electronic medical record (EMR). 

Rhonda Buckholz, vice president of ICD-10 training and education for the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC), addressed the American Academy of Otolaryngology (AAO) last week during the Annual Meeting and Expo in San Francisco. Ms. Buckholz explained that the forthcoming change from ICD-9 to ICD-10 will have a substantial impact on the entire practice.

White Plume's code scrubbing capabilities came to the rescue for an orthopedic practice.

A personal experience of how technology can adversely affect physician face time.

White Plume comments on "Top 10 EMR Installation Mistakes" by Healthcare Informatics.

The further Stage 2 gets pushed out, the longer the EMR vendors lack the time to concentrate on what ePASS offers.

Speed is in the eye of the beholder, particularly when the “beholder” is a busy physician!

White Plume Technologies fits very nicely in the middle of electronic health records (EHRs) or electronic medical records (EMRs) and practice management (PM) systems. 

Buying an EMR is a big challenge. Whether you choose an integrated EMR and PM System or a best of breed approach, White Plume can help bridge the gap. We’ve got customers that are choosing both and there’s no single answer that’s right for everybody. 

This is a difficult time for practice administrators as you attempt to navigate your way to the future. Many practices have made significant financial investments in existing practice management and EMR systems. Some practices are now making additional new investments in those technologies by replacing an existing EMR.

The EMR today is not the ideal EMR of the future. A gap exists. White Plume is here to fill it.