Case Study: Children’s Medical Centers of Fresno

The Situation: Buyer’s Remorse

Like many physicians today, Dr. Tushar Patel of Children’s Medical Centers of Fresno experienced “buyer’s remorse” from his initial EHR purchase. Even though Dr. Patel is still stuck paying for a locked-in five-year contract with his previous vendor, he believes it was worth making the switch from a large, well-known EHR vendor to Meditab Software. Dr. Patel knows that it’s not about finding the largest, brand name vendor, but about finding the right vendor with the best EHR for him and his practice. Dr. Patel stated “What’s ironic is that I had initially selected IMS, but ended up listening to other voices that were preaching the benefits of going with a larger company. Looking back, if I had gone with my gut instincts instead of scare tactics, I would have saved over $100,000 in payments to the other vendor.”

After using his previous system for 8 months, he quickly realized that the system was not meeting his needs; in fact, he experienced so many limitations with his EHR solution that, in the end, his staff ended up only using the product for billing and scheduling instead of clinical management. Dr. Patel was frustrated with what he saw as a lack of customization options, immunization-tracking features and promises of functionality that were ultimately never fulfilled.

As a busy pediatric practice in California, Dr. Patel had specific functionality that he needed from his EHR. For example, his practice is highly dependent on the CHDP program and having that functionality is critical to his daily practice, but unfortunately, that CHDP module never evolved with his previous vendor. Where they fell through on promises of easy customization and modules for specialized functionality, Meditab was able to step in with IMS and deliver.

Additionally frustrating to Dr. Patel, were customer support challenges. “In order to request a change or an enhancement, there was a great deal of bureaucracy to get through and promptness did not seem to exist, as it took weeks, even months to resolve any issues,” said Dr. Patel. This lack of

Changing EMRs: IMS Clinical Automation, Easy Choice in a Difficult Situation

Challenge: After implementing an EHR, Dr. Patel discovered that it lacked the clinical functionality his pediatric practice needed. He was using it only for billing and scheduling yet was stuck in a 5-year contract. Solution: Even though he was still contractually obligated to pay for his other EHR system, the decision was made to switch to the IMS clinical automation solution because he wanted to utilize a system that had the functionality he needed.

Results: The practice’s revenue has increased by a substantial 33% and their overall bottom line has increased by 28%. The average patient wait time has decreased from 2-3 hours to just 30 minutes with the use of IMS.

Practice Name: Children’s Medical Centers of FresnoUsers: 2 MDs, 2 NPs, 12 StaffSpecialty: Pediatrics Time in practice: 16 yearsLocation: Fresno, CA

Snap Shot: Busy pediatric practice converts to IMS™ from another EHR looking for a more comprehensive system and a better overall user experience .

Practice profile

Case Study: Children’s Medical Centers of Fresno

Benefits experienced:

Improved office productivity - using fewer clicksSignificant workflow automationIncreased patient satisfactionReduced wait timesIncreased staff moraleIncreased bottom line profitability by 28%Increased overall revenue by 33%

responsiveness and missing product functionality is what led Dr. Patel to search for another EHR system - one that better fit his specialty needs and his desire for more personalized support.

The Solution: A Personalized Approach

The second time around, Dr. Patel wanted to ensure he did not repeat the same mistakes as the first time. He wanted a stable company with the right product for his practice. Prior to selecting IMS, Dr. Patel verified the stability of Meditab as a company in business since 1998 and he verified the company’s track record in meeting client expectations. He also visited four clients utilizing IMS to ensure that what was promised truly existed and was usable. Only after this thorough evaluation did Dr. Patel finally settle on IMS as the right solution for his practice.

Understanding his previous challenges and frustrations, the implementation team at Meditab was able to make the transition for Dr. Patel’s practice as seamless and effortless as possible; in fact, the data conversion process took less than a week to complete. According to Dr. Patel, “The IMS implementation team wanted to understand my needs first and then they requested information to adapt IMS to our practice instead of us adapting to IMS.” This personalized approach is what really set the IMS implementation apart.

As for the product functionality that he was looking for, with the combination of the integrated IMS Clinical and IMS Manager solutions, Dr. Patel says that he finally has the clinical functionality he needs. He finds the immunization tracking, growth charts, BMI, and Down Syndrome functionality to be “top notch.” Additionally, the financial tools create a complete system that empowers Dr. Patel to provide the highest level of care while maximizing his cash-flow so that he can continue helping children for years to come.

The Outcome: Clinical and Financial Gains

Today, as a result of the IMS implementation, Dr. Patel’s whole office runs seamlessly using the integrated practice management and EHR system. They have experienced a dramatic improvement in reimbursement rates, patient

Specialized EHR functionality for CHDP made IMS a great solution for Dr. Patel’s peds practice.

Features like the integrated Immunization Module help streamline workflows and give providers the

information they need right at their fingertips.

Case Study: Children’s Medical Centers of Fresno

satisfaction and clinical flow. Dr. Patel has also noticed a significant positive change in the way staff interacts with one another and an improvement in individual stress levels. Dr. Patel has not encountered another EHR system with the level of functionality that IMS offers - especially for pediatrics. Additionally and importantly, Dr. Patel’s practice has seen significant financial strides – increasing their the bottom line by a whopping 28%.

The practice’s revenue increased by a substantial 33% and Dr. Patel is now able to see more patients in less time. Prior to working through IMS, individual providers were seeing 40 patients in a 10-hour day whereas now they are able to see 60 patients over an eight-hour period. As a result of this improved patient flow, average wait times have decreased to just 30 minutes from a previous average of 2-3 hours. One of the greatest benefits the practice has experienced from this is that patient complaints have virtually been eliminated due to the reduced wait times.

Another benefit Dr. Patel has seen is that they were able to eliminate a medical records room which opened up more space for additional equipment. The practice was able to add three new triage stations and move the administrative staff to a larger office by eliminating the medical records room. There was also room for improvement in the staff composition. Prior to IMS, the practice was running with two doctors and one nurse practitioner, a total of 12 staff members. Now, there are two physicians and two full-time nurse practitioners, totaling 11 staff members.

“The product is great, but the people are even better.”

Dr. Tushar PatelPediatrician

User-friendly Dashboards provide at-a-glance views of patient

flows from check-in to check-out by day, by provider, by office -

however your practice wants to analyze the data, IMS can provide

the reporting.

About MeditabEstablished in 1998, Meditab Software Inc., developers of IMS (Intelligent Medical Software), o ers clinical automation systems that maximize productivity, advance patient care, manage utilization, and reduce costs. Meditab develops and supports a multi-award-winning, multicer ctronic Health Records (EHR) system that combines clinical charting, e-prescribing, population management, decision support, practice analytics, document imaging and much more, on a single database platform. The company takes tremendous pride in providing comprehensive, user-friendly, and a ordable solutions for each practice’s unique needs.Time tested and proven, IMS generates tangible returns for medical practices of all sizes. Headquartered in Oakland, Califor ross the globe, Meditab supports hundreds-of-thousands of users nationwide.

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Case Study: Children’s Medical Centers of Fresno

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As part of moving to an EHR, Dr. Patel like many providers, was interested in participating in the Meaningful Use incentive program and is in the process of attesting for Meaningful Use. He reports that the EMR was ready for all of the attestation metrics and his team has had no problems generating reports for the core criteria; in fact, all of their providers have attested for and received stimulus incentives. In terms of Meditab’s support through this process, Dr. Patel says that there was a “turn-key approach and Meditab’s support was unmatchable.” He goes on to say that the technology associated with

has been immeasurable.”

improvements seen in his practice, Dr. Patel stresses that he chose Meditab as his clinical automation system partner because he believes in the people behind the product. As someone who has been involved before in a tumultuous vendor relationship, he speaks from experience. He says, “The product is great, but the people are even better.”

Integrated Growth Charts give providers and patients a visual representation of developmental data.

The easy-to-read Chart View lets providers quickly view a patient’s entire history from

a single screen.