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The Slow Evolution of a Healthcare Tool

[By Carol S. Miller; RN, MBA]

The Internet is a constantly evolving service that continues to grow at an exponential rate, especially in physician practices. Primarily, the Internet is used as a means to electronically and expeditiously transfer data via e-mail as well as obtain information from a variety of sites.  Initially, in the physician’s office, the primary use was e-mail communications with peers, hospitals and others. Next providers linked to hospitals and managed care organizations to obtain more direct connectivity for clinical information and benefit coverage. Today physicians are finding other beneficial avenues to expand their utilization of the Internet. Several examples include:

• Direct e-mail inquiries from the patient to the physician.
• Patient educational newsletters and links to other healthcare educational web sites.
• Continuing medical education (CME).
• Chat room consultations, conferences or presentations with other providers.
• Nurse to patient e-mail connectivity.
• Immediate data on lab results with alerts for abnormal high or low values.
• CPOEs (Computerized Purchase Order Entry Systems).
• Radiology images.
• EMR (Electronic Medical Records).
• Monitoring of patients blood sugars or EKGs via the Internet.
• Appointment scheduling on-line by patients.
• Patient appointment reminders via the Internet.
• Secure physician portals such as Medicity, located at www.medicity.com, which allows access to pertinent and prioritized data from a wide range of sources and vendors to include, labs, imaging centers, hospitals, payers and others.
• HIPAA compliant Application Service Providers (ASP) for dictation, recording, routing and speech recognition and transcription services, such as Speech Machines at http://www.speechmachines.com.

Access Management

Besides the value to the patient and the physician, the physician can utilize his or her Internet connection with software firms such as NextGen to automate the registration, scheduling, eligibility verification, billing and “clean” claims processing via innovative Web-base solutions in real-time scenarios. All the physician’s office needs is a PC, a standard Internet browser, and a connection to the Internet to take advantage of this service.

Assessment

These resources and more, via the Internet super highway, enable physicians to have quicker and easier access to clinical information and improve productivity. Furthermore, these tools will quickly assist providers with accurate and timely medical decision making, thus improving patient care and outcomes.

Conclusion

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Speaker: If you need a moderator or speaker for an upcoming event, Dr. David E. Marcinko; MBA – Publisher-in-Chief of the Medical Executive-Post – is available for seminar or speaking engagements. Contact: MarcinkoAdvisors@msn.com

OUR OTHER PRINT BOOKS AND RELATED INFORMATION SOURCES:

• PRACTICES: www.BusinessofMedicalPractice.com
• HOSPITALS: http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781466558731
• CLINICS: http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781439879900
• ADVISORS: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.org
• FINANCE: Financial Planning for Physicians and Advisors
• INSURANCE: Risk Management and Insurance Strategies for Physicians and Advisors
• Dictionary of Health Economics and Finance
• Dictionary of Health Information Technology and Security
• Dictionary of Health Insurance and Managed Care

http://www.BusinessofMedicalPractice.com

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Filed under: Book Reviews, Career Development, iMBA, Inc., Information Technology, Practice Management, Recommended Books, Sponsors | Tagged: ASP, carol s. miller, CPOEs, david marcinko, EHRs, EMRs, health 2.0, hope hetico, internet physicians, medical internet, physician computing, physician connectivity, superhighway, www.healthcarefinancials.com, www.HelthDictionarySeries.com. www.MedicalBusinessAdvisors.com | 2 Comments »