Ada West Dermatology Improves Operations and Saves Time with the Dermatology EHR System, EMA®
Case Study
The Goals
- Secure a dermatology EHR from a trusted vendor
- Eliminate server-based hardware costs
- Reduce time documenting and finalizing notes
- Use an EHR system that keeps up with industry regulations
Key Benefits Experienced
- Dermatology electronic health records (EHR) system
- Ease of use and intuitive interface saves hours of time
- Built-in MIPS intelligence and composite score reporting
- Improved operations
14-provider dermatology practice reaps benefits from transitioning its dermatology software.
“When one of our physicians was seeing over 100 patients per day with our previous EHR system, he would have to spend a few hours each evening and almost seven hours over the weekend to catch up on dictations. With EMA, not only has he cut out dictations and transcriptionists and the wasteful paper trail, he now spends about 30 minutes per day finalizing electronic notes and his weekends are free.”
‒ SOM PHIMMASONE, OPERATIONS MANAGER
Background
Ada West Dermatology, located in Meridian, Idaho, had been using an EHR system that lacked dermatology-specific content and impeded efficiencies. In their search for a replacement, the leadership team performed thorough due diligence in an effort to provide an easy transition for their 14 providers and over 70 staff members.
Som Phimmasone, operations manager, shared, “Although our previous server-based EHR system wasn’t perfect, we decided to try it out for two years. Unfortunately, after a respectable effort, we realized it wasn’t going to work for our practice. The system was geared towards primary care and was not customizable to our distinct dermatology needs. We then reviewed 45 different systems and our lack of trust in a vendor made us leery to pursue any.”
“We first saw the dermatology EHR EMA at a tradeshow event and we were very skeptical. The system looked amazing and claimed to be dermatology-specific so we decided to participate in an in-depth demonstration to which we threw out every possible question we could think of. What I immediately loved about Modernizing Medicine is that not only did their team provide an answer, they also showed us how to do it. A lot of EHR systems are linear but what makes EMA so unique is how dynamic and intuitive it is for dermatology,” Som explained. “We also loved the idea of being cloud-based, which would provide instant access to patient data from almost anywhere and would eliminate the IT headache and extra hardware costs associated with server-based systems. EMA is everything we had been searching for in a dermatology EHR.”
“After thorough training provided by the Modernizing Medicine team, it came time to go live with EMA, and we decided to take a gradual approach. Our nurse practitioner was the first to see patients using the system and by the first day, she was documenting 100 percent of her patient load in EMA. The easy to use, intuitive interface allowed our providers to be fully electronic within one week. Our experience was off to a great start already.”
Time and Money Saved With Our New Dermatology EHR
EMA is programmed to think like a dermatologist and intuitively adapts to its users’ preferences while effortlessly generating thorough documentation and billing codes. The real-time data collection and dynamic functionality EMA enables allows the providers at Ada West Dermatology to work faster and more efficiently, saving them time and money.
“The physician at our practice who initially was the most skeptical of EMA has become its biggest advocate. When he was seeing over 100 patients per day with our previous EHR system, he would have to spend a few hours each evening and almost seven hours over the weekend to catch up on dictations. With EMA, not only has he cut out dictations and transcriptionists and the wasteful paper trail, he now spends about 30 minutes per day finalizing electronic notes and his weekends are free,” Som shared.
“EMA has not only saved time but has also helped us to increase revenue with its automatic and suggested coding. In our retrospective analysis when coding on paper, we realized we under coded visits. Using EMA as our dermatology EHR, we have reduced our under-coding without any changes to provider behavior.”
Prepared for MIPS with Built-in Intelligence
Modernizing Medicine automates the composite score elements that are used to calculate and monitor MIPS.
“EMA automates quality documentation and has made our lives so much easier, in particular in helping us attest for Meaningful Use and PQRS. We have a MIPS advisor that monitors our progress, which has made what can be a difficult task quite simple,” said Som. “We could potentially lose $320,000 in 2017 due to MIPS so we made the decision to enroll in Modernizing Medicine’s MIPS Advisory program. From a clinical standpoint we can focus on our patients as opposed to regulatory aspects, which is a huge relief.”
“Modernizing Medicine is all about the relationships they have with their clients and it shows. They always strive to improve and we feel they take care of us. We’ve never reconsidered our decision to choose EMA."