Practice Saves on Hiring Costs and Improves Communication Through Use of Misys Healthcare Systems

When Albemarle Family Practice sought to expand its staff of providers, it quickly discovered the impact of an electronic medical records (EMR) system – both in obtaining quality job candidates and in managing its practice's expanding workflow.

Comprised of two North Carolina locations – one in Elizabeth City, the other in Camden – Albemarle Family Practice cares for an average of 3,000 patients per month.  As the practice's patient list grew, so did the need for an additional provider and a technology that would let the practice more easily manage patient care. Albemarle Family Practice's goal was to hire a physician without hiring any additional support staff.  To do this, the practice needed to step-up its already strong commitment to technology.

Beverly Sutton, Practice Manager for Albemarle Family Practice, turned to a reliable business partner for help.  "We had been using Misys Healthcare Systems for many years," she said.  "We knew their products and service reputation, and we trusted our relationship with them enough to rely on Misys to help us take this huge step toward EMR implementation.  We understood that Misys Healthcare Systems would be there to support us and help us reach the goals we were setting for this project."

Albemarle Family Practice chose Misys EMR, a flexible system that vastly increases record keeping efficiency and data access.  Sutton and her team are now using Misys EMR in tandem with Misys Tiger, a Windows®-based practice management system that helps improve administrative efficiency and patient management. Sutton said that the two technologies were instrumental in Albemarle Family Practice's ability to hire a new provider while curbing the need to bring in additional staff.

This resulted in significant cost savings.

"Our new provider was on EMR before, and one of his determining factors for joining our practice was the fact that we were being aggressive with technology and were implementing Misys EMR.  Because of Misys EMR, we haven't had to add any employees, effectively reducing our staff per physician ratio.  This has been an immediate savings.

"We've also seen a reduction in our supplies," Sutton continued.  "We no longer need to purchase charts, labels, or tabs.  We can average about five or six new patients a day, and every time you see a new patient, you have to create a new chart.  Purchasing charts for each patient can be costly.  Not having to do this has resulted in huge savings."

In addition to controlling costs associated with hiring, Misys Healthcare Systems has reduced chart use at Albemarle Family Practice, making chart purchases irrelevant.  Misys allows Albemarle Family Practice's physicians, nurse practitioners and administrative staff to record and access everything – from the scheduling of patient visits, to critical prescription information and other patient data – in an electronic format.

"We wanted to provide for better efficiency regarding servicing our patients' healthcare needs," Sutton said.  "Some of our providers see patients in both of our locations, which meant they would normally have to transport charts.  We felt that by doing this we were putting our patients' privacy at risk.  We also wanted to make sure that patients' records were always available, and that everyone would have access to these records at any given time."

Now, through Misys Healthcare Systems, "all of our charts are going into Misys EMR, and everything is always readily available.  We no longer have to delay checking records to make sure that no charges were missed.  We can catch any errors the day the record is created, rather than having to wait three days for a chart to be prepared.  Plus, nurses are able to answer call backs more quickly, and respond to questions immediately without having to wait for charts to be typed up."

Sutton said that communication between everyone within the practice – including between the two offices – "has improved 180 percent.  Our use of Misys Healthcare Systems has made a huge difference for the practice, and we have seen immediate benefits."