One Year Later: Checking In with an Early Adopter of athenaClinicalsSM
Dr. Dhiren Sutaria of Woodland Internists, a one-physician practice affiliated with Winchester Hospital IPA, became interested in electronic medical records (EMRs) after talking to fellow physicians. With adoption of EMRs on the rise, he decided that he should look around and test drive one.
Eliminating Process Inefficiencies
Dr. Sutaria began by implementing athenaClinicalsSM in January 2006, one of the first practices to sign up. (Being an early adopter meant that athenaClinicals would be partially designed around his specifications.) First, the Document Workflow re-routed all the paper coming into his office to athenahealth and created his “provider inbox.” The Encounter Workflow then enabled him to use athenaClinicals to capture encounter and document orders electronically.
Almost immediately, Dr. Sutaria noticed there was a lot less paper to handle, he could spend more time with patients, and the office ran a lot more smoothly. “All of our incoming faxes and mail go to athenahealth for processing, and then we see them nicely categorized in athenaClinicals rather than having to handle them here,” Dr. Sutaria said.
Instant Access to Patient Information
Now, more than a year after implementing athenaClinicals, Dr. Sutaria rarely pulls a chart. “The biggest difference with athenaClinicals is that there’s almost no need to handle paper,” said Dr. Sutaria. “We have all the information about each patient – from their medical histories to their medication allergies – without having to recheck and rewrite those every time. It saves a lot of staff time.”
Dr. Sutaria and his staff now see all clinical documents and results – labs, radiology reports, x-rays, CAT-scans, etc. – online. They also document all patient visits and procedures, submit orders and manage tasks in athenaClinicals. All the work they do is captured as part of the online medical record, giving them instant access to a wide range of information about patients.
Dr. Sutaria has also been using the electronic prescription and clinical flow sheets that are part of athenaClinicals. “The electronic prescription function works very well,” he said. “And with the diabetes and coumadin flow sheets, I can see all patient test results in one place.”
Proven Return on Investment
athenaClinicals builds on the proven ROI of athenahealth’s web-based billing and practice management solution by applying intuitive software, billing intelligence and results-oriented services to the clinical space. athenaClinicals offers a complete clinical workflow that is seamlessly integrated with athenaCollector, allowing all areas of the practice to share information. Physicians can see payer rules that need to be considered at the point of care, and billing staff can see the clinical documentation to support claim processing. athenahealth combines clinical and payer rules to make sure that appropriate billing and clinical data is captured and physicians receive maximum reimbursement for the services they provide.
Dr. Sutaria said even his patients like athenaClinicals. “It’s exciting for them to watch their doctor writing on a tablet in front of them and know all the information is going directly into their online file,” he said.