Less Paper, Less Fuss, Better Patient Care

As populations grow, medical offices across the country struggle with an increasing amount of paper-based patient charts and records, and many are seeking alternatives. Paperless office solutions, such as electronic medical records (EMRs) have made strong in-roads by streamlining operations, and mobile

The Bellevue Family Medicine Association (BFMA) in Bellevue, Wash. has maintained a commitment to advancing the quality and content of healthcare for more than 29 years. Meanwhile, it remained open to the adoption of new innovations in both diagnostics and treatment techniques for its patients in an effort to provide the most comprehensive services possible.

As a successful healthcare provider with more than 100 patients needing care daily and more than 10,000 active patients charts, it became apparent to the physicians that BFMA's workload had exceeded a reasonably sized workforce. The full-time staff was drowning in paperwork, caused by the archaic task of manually entering all data, from appointments to billing. A large portion of the staff spent much of each 8-hour workday absorbed by data processing. The office was inefficient at best.

The Right Combination

In 1995, BFMA explored modernizing and streamlining the office. After considering the available options, the organization installed an online electronic Practice Management (PM) system. However, after several years of use, the physicians felt the PM system had failed to accomplish their goals. The front office saw gains in efficiency, but the back office remained overburdened with paperwork and dictation tasks.

In 2002, the physicians set out to find the right combination of mobile devices and Web-based software to help automate all tasks, including the back office, which they believed would lead to increased efficiency.

By June 2004, BFMA had supplemented their existing PM system with Chart Connect, a Web-based EMR; five Toshiba Portege M205 Tablet PCs; and, MD-Connect, an online patient portal system. After two years of research and implementation, BFMA had finally become a completely electronic clinic.

Connecting the Dots

Chart Connect demonstrated itself to be cost effective and easily purchased, and the installation was simple and straightforward. MD-Connect showed great promise as a medical record-keeping system in terms of improving the patient experience. In 2002, BFMA beta-tested MD-Connect to send lab results and physicians comments to 5,000 (roughly half) of its clinic patients. Those BFMA patients could review their information from virtually any Internet-enabled location.