Craig Austin Dermatology Increases Patient Volume and Improves Business Operations With the Help of ModMed® Dermatology

Dermatology software helps practice reach and exceed goals.

An Easy Decision to Switch

Our medical and aesthetic dermatology practice, Craig Austin Dermatology, located in Fishkill, N.Y., used paper charts for over 30 years before implementing a dermatology electronic health records (EHR) system. We made the decision to go digital when we started hiring new physicians that insisted on using an EHR system because that’s what they were trained on. Also, with five providers and four aestheticians, we were running out of space for storing paper charts, particularly at our New York City location, Cane + Austin. We hoped that an EHR system would help to increase efficiency and improve operations.

In 2017, we rushed to make a decision and selected a dermatology EHR and dermatology practice management solution that was inexpensive and appeared to have a great interface, but we quickly realized it had many faults. Although this system was dermatology specific, it was difficult to navigate and required hours of customization time that we didn’t have. It also didn’t have an integrated payment processing system, which created extra work and left room for human error.

One of our physicians had used Modernizing Medicine’s dermatology EHR system, EMA, and told us how easy it was to use. We participated in a demonstration of the modmed Dermatology suite, which includes EMA, Practice Management (PM) and Analytics. We discovered the system to be user friendly and easy to navigate, and the financial and reporting capabilities were far more advanced than our previous system. Also, many of our colleagues recommended it, which added more confidence to our decision. In just six weeks, we opted out of our previous EHR company’s contract and signed with Modernizing Medicine.

The implementation plan was easy. Over the course of a few weeks, we reduced our schedules and participated in onsite training provided by a Modernizing Medicine educator. It was important to me that we invested in proper training, which resulted in an educated staff and a smooth transition.

Success in the Numbers

EMA is programed by practicing dermatologists and comes with built-in dermatology-specific content, so we were not required to spend hours customizing it to fit our needs like our previous system. Also, EMA intuitively adapts to our workflow and our providers’ individual preferences, which has helped streamline processes and increase patient volume.

We went from averaging 715 patients per month with paper at our Fishkill office to 900 patients per month with EMA without hiring additional staff. I was able to ramp up our marketing initiatives because I was confident that EMA would not slow things down.

Also, because PM works seamlessly with EMA for our dermatology billing, I can easily review our billables and adjust as needed so we are not undercoding like we were with paper. Our physicians like that the billables are increasing and everything is fully documented to support them. The system’s ease of use, automatic coding suggestions and billing transparency, combined with additional marketing initiatives, helped us to show a 30 percent increase in revenue.

Efficiency Gained All Around

We strive to remain efficient and provide our patients with a good experience. I utilize the reporting capabilities within the Analytics platform to keep a pulse on the operations of the practice. For example, I can capture delays in billing and view which providers are not finalizing charts in a timely manner. Also, I can keep an eye on patient wait times and flow in an effort to determine how we can work to maximize the number of patients seen per hour.

The seamless flow of data between EMA and PM has helped to increase efficiency and save time. We are a busy practice, so the schedule can get chaotic. When a patient books an appointment, their demographic information is already automatically found in their chart in EMA—no extra data entry needed. Follow-up visits are fast because all the information is already there. When a note is finalized, it’s ready to be billed much more quickly than before. Paper charts took six weeks to be ready for billing. With EMA, they are ready in two days.

Having EMA, PM and Analytics has certainly helped to increase efficiency while saving us time and money. We can now allocate more resources to helping our patients, which is the ultimate goal.