HITECH ACT
Saphner: Elekta Impac software holds our practice together. We use it at both of our main offices; at the branch clinics, one has switched, one in process and we have two more to go. Once we achieve that, we’ll all be on the system.
The real ROI happens after work patterns change, and that doesn’t happen until the last doctor converts. Once that happens, you see benefits in many aspects. Once all doctors are on Impac you no longer need paper charts. One goal is to get all doctors to approve treatment plans on the computer, and the majority has already made that conversion.
Willard: At go-live, we were a privately owned physician group strictly focused on medical oncology. In 2008, the hospital purchased the practice, so now we’re hospital owned and based.
Our goal is to merge databases with the separate radiation oncology department and have a unified patient record, since we see about 85-87% of the same patients. We’re working to integrate with radiation oncology and interface with the hospital’s McKesson computer system.
About Our Experts
Terry McKay
President and CEO
West Michigan Cancer Center
Kalamazoo, MI
www.wmcc.org
West Michigan Cancer Center is a cooperative program for cancer treatment of the two major healthcare facilities in the Kalamazoo area, Bronson Methodist Hospital and Borgess Medical Center, which consolidates the non-surgical cancer treatment services formerly located throughout the area. The center averages nearly 80,000 patient visits annually, with more than 120 employees in 55,000 square feet of space.
Thomas Saphner, M.D., FACP
Principle Investigator
St. Vincent Regional Cancer Center CCOP
Green Bay Oncology
Green Bay, WI
As principle investigator for the St. Vincent Regional Cancer Center, Thomas Saphner, M.D., FACP, leads the prestigious Community Clinical Oncology Program (CCOP) as designated by the National Cancer Institute. The designation makes St. Vincent one of only 63 major cancer research sites in 34 states, District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
Kim Willard
Impac Systems Administrator
Palmetto Hematology Oncology Clinic
Spartanburg, SC
www.palmettoho.com
Purchased by Spartanburg Regional Hospital System in 2008, the Palmetto Hematology Oncology Clinic has 88 employees, five physicians as well as five local offices. The clinic is affiliated with the famed MD Anderson Clinic and provides state-of-the-art cancer care for residents of upstate South Carolina.
As an EMR solution, MOSAIQ® is committed to certifying under the HiTech Act, part of the $787 billion Stimulus Bill passed on February 17, 2009.
For more information, visit www.elekta.com/hitech
Elekta will host its ninth Medical Oncology EMR Summit August 19-20, 2010 at the Fairmont Hotel in downtown Chicago. An interactive forum, attendees will be presented with information on how to personalize their EMR to provide better, more efficient patient care within their medical oncology practice.
There is no fee to attend the summit, which includes topics such as:
- The latest features and functionality within MOSAIQ, Elekta’s EMR designed for use in medical oncology and radiation oncology environments
- Insight into how clinics can comply with new federal criteria as outlined under the HITECH Act
Additional presentations highlighting practice management, ePrescribing, billing, service, support, and more will be featured, as well as less-formal panel discussions and breakout sessions featuring customers, clinical experts and Elekta personnel. Don’t miss Thursday’s networking reception, where our signature cocktails, the EMR-tini and M.O.-jito, will be served!
Held in conjunction with the meeting, fee-based applications training workshops will be offered August 17-18 and August 21. These training sessions will be held off-site at MicroTek in downtown Chicago, close to the MO EMR Summit hotel. To learn more, register or view a complete schedule, visit http://www.elekta.com/mosummit.
McKay: Everything is now in the electronic record. You’ll find legible patient orders at your fingertips in the exam room, workstation and doctor’s office. If you’re covering for another doctor, can see everything and provide better treatment.
Saphner: In the old days, you would order chemo and have 10-12 components to be entered with a ballpoint pen. The potential for mistakes was enormous. Now, you can create a care plan and standardize on that. The result is greater accuracy and safer delivery of medicines.
Next
Q. What do you expect to achieve in the future with your EMR system?
Saphner: Information security is better with electronic records. With a paper document, you don’t know who has seen it or where it’s been. With electronic, you have a record of everyone who has opened the file.
Willard: EMR is sometimes seen as less secure. We have a patient population of largely elderly patients, so they had a lot of questions. We reinforced that all records are password protected. We have firewall and security, and our internal HPPA privacy and security auditors are continuously vigilant about security. When we were acquired and became hospital based, it made the security requirements more stringent. So we built assessments for quality, and have a real sense of pride in the levels of compliance that we’ve achieved. In addition, we work with MD Anderson, and they’ve deemed our EMR excellent.
Next
Q. What important benefits have you realized from using Elekta Impac software?
McKay: We’ve had dramatic savings. We saved one-half million dollars from our operating budget – annually. We went from eight people in medical records to one, and she does other things.
The other benefit has been the elimination of onsite storage of records because they’ve all been scanned. The medical records room is now a fitness center for patients and employees.
In the past, we took terrific care of patients, but used to measure the amount of paper that came to us every day in feet, not inches. One quality initiative we undertook was to see how fast we could get information into patient records. Four days was the best we could do, and 6-7 days was average. Now, it’s instantaneous.
Willard: The quality of care for the patient is at the center of what we do. We use Impac email to get questions to physicians for immediate attention, so there’s less waiting. It’s a quick communications tool, and information is available in real time.
Next
Q. How has your EMR helped to improve patient safety?
McKay: Patients have new admiration for their physician because they can see the CT right on the screen.
Saphner: Patients are not the least bit amazed by electronic records. You go to JiffyLube and they have all your records, so why wouldn’t your doctor? Patients expect it at this point.
Next
Q. Why did you choose Elekta Impac software?
McKay: Impac had radiation oncology and we needed medical oncology too. We tried a third party solution out of desperation, but the result was an unhappy staff. Impac had a very shallow learning curve and our staff was very happy with it. We reached a turning point when we started doing our own billing. We wanted the best accounts receivable system, and at the time, Impac wasn’t as good. But once our staff visited other sites, they decided to stay with Impac. At the time, people were picking “best of breed”. When we chose to stick with Impac for billing, it led us to a decision to stick with one vendor. That has served us well, since we don’t have to worry about interface issues. For us, it was a good decision. Plus, customer support is excellent.
Saphner: When we made the decision, they were the only game in town. We wanted a system to include billing, all clinical needs and radiation oncology, if we start offering that. In 2005, Impac was the only one who did that. However, we’ve been forced to look at systems again because we’re looking at binding together radiation oncology. We conducted a very thorough review and we couldn’t find anything better. It’s at least as good as the competitors, and we believe that Impac has very good people backing it up.
Willard: We started looking at EMRs in 1995. We looked at mom and pop systems, Varian and several other systems. We began looking at Impac in 1995 and continued through 1999. We laid out what we wanted in an EMR system and Elekta Impac Software brought it to us. It’s been around awhile, but I don’t think anyone had the complete solution until Elekta Impac Software did. They’ve always been the best choice for radiation oncology, and now they have medical oncology.
Next
Q. Were there concerns about security?
McKay: I have mature physicians, and we all use it for medical oncology and radiation oncology. They’ve become enthusiastic supporters. When they look at an enhancement, they’ll ask, “How many clicks is it?” They’ve gotten pretty sophisticated.
Willard: The key to our success was to put together an implementation team composed of someone from all departments. This team had a lot of meetings, timelines and roadmaps. Now that we have implementation, we have quarterly Impac staff meetings, with all 88 employees in one big room. During this time we review errors, process changes and discuss how to improve our processes. We also have an ongoing education process. We meet two times a year with each employee for 15 minutes, one-on-one. During this time we review their information needs and capabilities for using the system so we truly understand their processes and needs. We also meet quarterly with different departments.
Next
Q. What was the patient reaction to the EMR?
- Largest Neurosurgical Center in Russia Acquires Elekta’s Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion February 6, 2012Russia’s first Leksell Gamma Knife® Perfexion™ system has found a home at the renowned N.N. Burdenko Neurosurgical Institute, just a five-minute car ride from Moscow’s Red Square. On June 2, 2011, a 59-year-old woman was the first Perfexion patient, receiving Gamma Knife® radiosurgery to treat tumor tissue that remained following open surgery. Now, eight mon […]
- Largest Neurosurgical Center in Russia Acquires Elekta’s Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion February 6, 2012N.N. Burdenko Neurosurgical Institute improves treatment of patients with multiple metastasesRead more... […]
- SRT January 31, 2012Würzburg10-11 December - 2012 […]
- Mosaiq® - Electronic Medical Records January 31, 2012Mannheim26-27 November - 2012 […]
- IMRT / VMAT January 31, 2012Mannheim22-23 November - 2012 […]
- IGRT January 31, 2012Amsterdam16-17 November - 2012 […]
- SBRT January 31, 2012Wake Forest, North Carolina18-19 October - 2012 […]
- IGRT January 31, 2012Amsterdam29-30 June - 2012 […]
- IMRT / VMAT January 31, 2012Mannheim21-22 June - 2012 […]
- Mosaiq® - Electronic Medical Records January 31, 2012Mannheim18-19 June - 2012 […]