IT for HM
The overall solution from MedAptus also includes the ability to receive lab and radiology results, as well as clinical notes, electronically at any time, anywhere. “We help leverage and extend existing IT assets in a mobile form factor,” summarizes Dr. Delaney. “We’re on version seven; we’ve had the opportunity to figure out how to fit in with a physician’s work flow.”
https://medical.bmaenterprises.com
IM Practice Manager 1.0, Ingenious Med, Inc.
www.ingeniousmed.com/practice_manager.htm
MedAptus Point-of-Care Solution Suite, MedAptus, Inc.
www.medaptus.com/solutions/overview.php
PatientKeeper, PatientKeeper, Inc.
PatientKeeper (PatientKeeper, Inc.)
The most established software for hospitalists, PatientKeeper is a single integrated system designed to support a physician throughout the entire day. At any time, from any location, physicians can access their patients’ electronic records, write prescriptions, enter charges, dictate notes, document encounters, place orders, or send secure messages to other caregivers.
Stephen S. Hau, founder and vice president, marketing and business development, agrees that charge capture is the most requested utility. “This is a huge financial advantage for an institution, plus it increases physician satisfaction,” he says. “In three taps, you can capture a charge, and there are 900 rules [in the software] that help ensure the charge is correct and a clean bill is entered.”
But getting back to the daily tasks of hospitalists, “Our whole take is trying to fill the void where institutions have purchased information systems but there’s nothing to support the physician,” says Hau.
For example, Hau says, “One of the tasks that eats up a lot of time is finding information—the ‘chart chase,’ along with communicating with other providers. We help make it easier to send information to each other. You can send a patient-specific instant message, saying, ‘waiting on lab results for patient Molly Doe.’ Now more providers are in play per patient, so communication is more important.”
This improves patient care and even quality of life for working hospitalists. “One physician said he used to get calls at home about discharges,” recalls Hau. “Now he can access the information and discharge a patient over the phone if it’s appropriate. That shortens length of stay.”
PatientKeeper also allows individual users to customize the utility. “The exciting, challenging thing about [designing software for] physicians is that one size does not fit all,” says Hau. “One thing we provide is the ability to easily manage your own patient list; you can organize it by your schedule or by location or rounding path. We call features like that ‘physician delighters.’ These are what has made us so successful.”
Perhaps because of the physician delighters, or perhaps because they’ve been around the longest, PatientKeeper is currently the most widely used technology solution in hospital medicine. “We’re in 350 hospitals across the country, so I guess we’re the market leader,” says Hau. “We just announced two new patents, so we believe we’re also the technology leaders.”
Conclusion
Programs like the ones outlined here are definitely the future of healthcare, but the first step might be the most painful. “The investment is sizeable,” warns Dr. Rosenbaum. “The main problem is that it’s expensive. You need an upfront investment with no real guarantee of the returns.” TH
Jane Jerrard has written for The Hospitalist since 2005.
