Unless you’ve been so busy with patients that you haven’t had time to turn on a television, you know the economy is bad. Depending on who you listen to, this is either the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression or it’s a “market correction” that was inevitable. One thing everyone seems to agree on is that hard times are here to stay — at least for awhile.
As a business owner, it’s natural to start thinking about cutting costs and reducing overhead. If you’ve been taking the advice in Physicians Practice, chances are good you’ve already put some expense-saving strategies into practice.
One thing you may have overlooked is how technology can help cut overhead costs. Whether it’s an EMR system or electronic billing, technology can make your practice leaner, meaner, and more productive.
You’ve probably heard it all before — from the sales rep who tried to sell you a $15,000-a-month practice management system. The only thing the rep didn’t tell you was how to pay for it.
But here is the thing you need to know, especially in these tough economic times: Technology can end up paying for itself.
EMRs and staff reduction
The single biggest technology expenditure your practice can make (outside of specialized medical equipment, of course) is for an EMR. Don’t let the price tag intimidate you, though, because it’s also where you’ll find your biggest cost savings.
Based in Geneva, Ill., Fox Valley Family Physicians is an eight-physician practice with four midlevel providers and an active patient base of about 20,000. In the fall of 2005, it decided to implement Intergy EMR, a comprehensive software package that can handle everything from records management and e-prescribing to financial analysis and setting up a patient portal for the practice.
For Fox Valley, the emphasis was definitely on medical records. “In a paper office, when a patient calls in there is a note taken on a little notepad that is usually put on a spindle,” explains Terri Kraft, director of practice management at Fox Valley. “Someone comes and grabs it off, goes and finds the chart, then they take that chart and bring it to the person in the practice who’s responsible. Maybe that person has to give it to someone else. It eventually needs to get back to the receptionist to call that patient back with information.”
To support its 300 daily patient visits, Fox Valley employed a sizeable staff of medical records personnel who spent the bulk of their day shuffling paper, looking for charts, and pulling charts for physicians or patient visits. With an EMR like Intergy, all of that manual work would disappear.
“The main driver for the return on investment in the system was significant staff reduction,” says Kraft. In fact, the practice targeted a reduction of seven full-time employees, all from the medical records division, over a period of approximately 18 months.
Fox Valley went live with its EMR in January 2006. Within a year — six months ahead of their projections — it was able to reduce all seven FTE positions; six from medical records and one receptionist, which surprised Kraft.
“We found that we were overstaffed because our call volumes went down,” she explains. “What we were finding was that our patients were getting calls back within a half-hour of their original call. It really reduced the number of second calls that came in from patients: ‘I haven’t heard from you, I called three hours ago.’”
The EMR also eliminated follow-up calls from pharmacies. The software’s e-prescribing module meant that pharmacists no longer had to call with questions about handwriting or incorrect dosages.
For Fox Valley, there are no second thoughts about cost-saving technology. “In our second fiscal year, it allowed us to have the best financial year we ever had,” says Kraft. “The reduction in FTEs far exceeded the cost of the system in year two.”
In a couple of months, the practice plans to go live with another cost-saving technology: an interface with the local hospital that will allow for electronic radiology reports to be transmitted directly into its EMR. Right now those reports come to Fox Valley via fax and take up a lot of staff time because of the number of referrals the practice gives.
“Once that turns electronic, our medical records staff won’t have to touch those,” says Kraft. “We’re projecting, if not a full FTE, at least a partial FTE reduction specifically due to that interface.”
Technology Savings Although an EMR is likely to have the biggest savings impact on your practice, also consider these other technology solutions. They may not realize huge cost savings, but even a small amount can be important in a bad economy. • Electronic billing — Outside of an EMR, this can be the biggest cost saver for a practice. Just as an EMR can reduce or eliminate a medical records staff that spends most of its time physically moving charts around, electronic billing can reduce the number of staff needed to pour over physical spreadsheets, file and refile claims, and even physically carry payments to the bank. For more information about how to set it up, search “electronic billing” at PhysiciansPractice.com. • VoIP — If you’re still paying per minute costs to your local telephone company, you might want to take a look at Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Basically, it’s a telephone that’s delivered over an Internet network, which allows you to do away with a number of telephone-related costs. Businesses of all sizes are increasingly turning to this cost-saving option as traditional business phone bills continue to rise. This is an especially attractive option for practices with multiple offices over a large geographical area. • Patient portals — How many phone calls does your practice field from patients asking the same questions over and over? Should you really pay someone an hourly salary to keep repeating directions to the office? Basic practice information, such as driving directions and office hours, can be posted to your practice’s Web site (You do have a Web site, don’t you?). Consider also using a password-protected section of the Web site to allow patients to review test results, fill in patient forms, or even book appointments — all without help from a staff member. There are a variety of software packages to help you set up these and other Internet-based options. |
