Scott Smith

Lessons learned

ssmith@bandwmedicalconsulting.com — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:17:00 GMT

There was an article on the Histalk website (http://histalk2.com/2009/01/14/readers-write-11509/) that I found interesting and it made me reflect a bit on the first EPM purchase/install I did with a client. I hope the tough lessons they and I learned will help someone else going forward - I know they did me. I encourage anyone looking at beginning a large IT project to read this blog and that article before you start investigating systems and dealing with salespeople.

The first thing that I would do differently is take control of the project from my client. I was just starting out and I was more conscious of what I was charging them to help instead of insisting that they use me more. I should have insisted I was part of every meeting, every email and every decision. Looking back, the money the client would have saved on their purchase would have more than made up for my fees. Not to mention the hours their practice administrator spent, the time the doctors spent and the headaches they've endured.

I would highly recommend, whether you use Black & White Medical or some other company, use someone. Let a professional take this off your plate and represent your practice. Of course, to do that, you have to make your desires clear - work with the consultant to make sure you're all on the same page as to what you're looking for. Your consultant can make recommendations, do the research if necessary, setup meetings and weed out those systems that aren't right for you and your practice.

To borrow from real estate's location, location, location maxim - get it in writing, get it in writing, get it in writing. The salesperson will tell you anything to make the sale. You can't take everything they say at face value. My client was supposedly promised a number of things which they've now had to fight for. They were told that the estimate they were given was a "worst-case" scenario so that they could get the proper financing from their leasing company - this turned out not to be the case and they're scrambling to get the additional financing. The other problem they're having now is response time for support calls. Get guaranteed response times in writing. If they want your business, they will provide you with response times or even a support person you can call directly for a certain number of days after your go-live. This should include at least one complete billing cycle.

The bottom line is, find a consultant that will work with you and take this project off your hands so you can continue to focus on your daily activities. Let them do the research, setup meetings, watch demos and weed out systems that aren't right for you. Let them be part of all the decision making and let them deal with the salespeople. And, finally, get it in writing (did I mention that?).

New Open Source Project to Help Run Health Information Exchanges

ssmith@bandwmedicalconsulting.com — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 13:16:00 GMT

This is an interesting press release from Open Health Tools, a collaborative effort with various facets of the healthcare industry and led by Misys Open Source Solutions. Healthcare IT can only move forward towards its ultimate goal and usefulness if disparate systems can communicate with each other and allow information to flow freely. This is important for portability of information and accessibility of that same information for healthcare professionals in different sectors. Imagine an emergency room doctor in Miami being able to call up all of the medical history of an unconcious patient on vacation and know what they're allergic to, that they recently had treatment for a cancerous tumor and took medicine to boost their red blood cell count. All information that may be important for that patient's care. Now, imagine that information is out there, but that ER doc can't read it because their system doesn't communicate with the system that the patient's oncologist and/or family doctor uses.
The idea behind this is to make all those systems able to communicate with each other and make that information available to healthcare providers that can benefit from it.

Use of EHR may cut down on paid malpractice settlements

ssmith@bandwmedicalconsulting.com — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:28:00 GMT

There is an interesting article in Healthcare IT News (www.healthcareitnews.com) that talks about a study done in Massachusetts that shows that practices that use an EHR system have a pretty substantial drop in paid malpractice settlements. While the group from the study is statistically small, the findings are interesting and, may hopefully lead to smaller payouts and, in turn, lower malpractice insurance. The full article can be found here: http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=10456

Free EMR/Practice Management Software

ssmith@bandwmedicalconsulting.com — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 12:05:00 GMT

There's a free practice management/EMR solution for providers that is available. It's called Practice Fusion (http://www.practicefusion.com). They offer a $0 web-based solution that truly is free. It is a web-based solution that charges nothing to use or get technical assistance. It does your backups and updates as well.

It's an interesting business model in that Practice Fusion makes its money in a way similar to how internet companies like Google make theirs - through advertising banners and selling anonymized information. They claim 100% HIPAA compliance and data security. And, if you don't want to see ads in your EMR, you can pay a small monthly fee ($250) to use an ad-free version.

I'm not endorsing the product as I haven't had the chance to test it or see it in action, but I thought it was interesting and might be an inexpensive solution for practices just starting or looking for a new system.

About Me....

ssmith@bandwmedicalconsulting.com — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 12:26:00 GMT

Here's some stuff about me that you won't find on the About Us page:

I graduated from Gettysburg College in 1990 with a degree in Political Science. I then parlayed that into a fun and rewarding career waiting tables and bartending. Mom was so proud that all that money didn't go to waste! I really enjoyed the restaurant world though and became a manager for a well known chain of restaurants. I left there to go to another well known chain of restaurants but the fire was dying. I was getting tired of the late nights and early mornings and almost 10 years of being somewhat sleep deprived caught up with me.

In 1999 I lost my first wife to cervical cancer. It became a good time to take stock of my life and where I was going and what I wanted to do going forward. My friend and former roommater had moved to Raleigh a few years before and was working for a practice management software company. He helped me get my foot in the door and my experience with customer service and my abilitiy to communicate was enough to convince them to hire me to a help desk position. I really felt more at home in the technology world. Even in my last jobs I had alwasy gravitated towards that part of my work that was IT related. While I enjoyed talking to the clients and resolving problems, I was looking for something a little more challenging. So, I switched departments there and was able to find something that really grabbed me - using reporting software to pull information from the database. Sounds thrilling, huh? Well, I liked it, so there :-p

In 2004, the opportunity to take on a leading IT role with a local medical practice enticed me to move on. That lasted for about 9 months - the company got bought out by a bigger company that already had an IT company doing all their work. Fortunately, they hired me on and taught me so much. I'll always be grateful for that opportunity for it has given me the experience and knowledge to allow me to help start B&W.

Julie and I are proud of the business we're building - we both had good jobs with good salaries but wanted something more. We want to be able to help others achieve success. We both realize that if we can help medical practices run more efficient, profitable businesses, they can spend less time worrying about their bottom line and more time taking care of their patients.

So, outside of work what am I like? Well, I like to think of myself as the non-geek IT geek. I don't spend all of my time in front of a computer screen, but love technology just the same and I'm constantly amazed and in awe of what humans can do. I'd rather watch sports than play Doom. I'd rather play golf on a real golf course than with a Wii. I can talk about politics as much as the pros/cons of Windows Vista.

That's enough of my ramblings for now....gotta go show Julie that you only need 1 remote to watch tv.

First Entry

ssmith@bandwmedicalconsulting.com — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 20:39:00 GMT

Well, this is my first foray into the 'blogging world'. I hope that future entries will provide information that others will like. There are millions of people blogging everyday on the World Wide Web and definitely not enough hours in the day to read all of those that are of interest. I'll try to keep mine short and to the point - I have a habit of running off at the keyboard. Some will be about the medical IT arena, some may be about other work related things of interest. Other entries may have absolutely nothing to do with work - but I'll try to keep my personal biases to a minimum.