When You Have the Passion, Persistence,
and Wherewithal, the Solution is Yours
Ottawa, Canada – February, 2011
AlisVet’s author, and a veterinarian turned software guru,
Howard Shweiger, BSc, DVM,
Doing Double Duty The question that faces the veterinarian community today is not whether it should have (paperless) electronic medical records, but rather, can it afford not to. In past years we have all heard of, among other potential solutions, handwriting and voice recognition. However, after 24 years of helping my fellow veterinarians recognize the benefits of digital medical records, and move towards its implementation, the unanimous rallying cry is that a properly managed electronic system is far superior to traditional methodologies and technologies. Simply put: an electronic medical record is accurate, faster, easier, and trustworthy.
What We Mean When We Say “Paperless” When referring to “paperless” solutions I will use the term paperless, electronic, and digital interchangeably. Paperless begins in the exam room and treatment area with the basics: history, findings, rule-outs, and the list goes on. All related documents including rads, images, and more can also be digitized and attached as desired. The applications continue to evolve, and today, you can go as far as to add your own digital drawings and markup digital images.
From the Medical Record, Absolute Functionality and Total Access As a practicing veterinarian who over the years faced the same challenges as my veterinarian colleagues, I built AlisVet from the ground up on the heretofore bypassed medical record driven foundational concept. The core definition of the electronic medical record driven is software that allows the veterinarian to build everything into a single patient-specific medical record complete with a case number and a reason for the visit. When a given electronic medical record is closed, an invoice is automatically and seamlessly created.
Veterinarians’ Lib Over the years, I have had the opportunity to speak with many veterinarians who expressed reluctance towards moving to computer-based medical records. Yet, an electronic medical record is not a new unproven methodology, nor is it difficult or prohibitive to use. With the creation of AlisVet, I implemented the electronic medical record in my own practice in 1988. Others started using AlisVet as early as 1993 and are still using it today. My perspective has always been that the digital medical record is simply another tool in the veterinarian's arsenal fueled by the same time-honoured objective: providing the best possible care for his or her patients. In the examination room the veterinarian can perform electronic entries in real time, or alternatively his or her assistant may enter the data during the exam. There is nothing that can give you more freedom in your day-to-day practice that having all your medical records easily accessible and expeditiously searchable on the computer during an examination. For the health of your patients, and the life of your practice, the importance of automating is crucial.
Capacity, Efficiency, Profitability With the implementation of an electronic medical record, your practice can become increasingly efficient and profitable. Single entry systems eliminate the time wasted by duplicate entry. There is AlisVet’s reminder system, the ability to track patients’ compliance to your recommendations, master problems, estimate and report card creation, a comprehensive computerized treatment schedule, and much more. It’s simple to create the electronic medical record while in the exam room and setting up the links. Being able to easily customize your SOAP and POMR is important in making an electronic medical record work for you. And there’s AlisVet’s Smart List Linking System. By adding a reusable text library instantly accessible via list of key words not only dramatically reduces typing but gives you a formatted and structured electronic medical record that is easy to read and search. Moreover, AlisVet’s Smart List triggers actions. No more one dimensional typing. With AlisVet you have a dedicated and multidimensional system at your fingertips.
Bonus: Marketing Your Practice With electronic medical records, staying in touch with your clients and marketing your practice is seamless and virtually effortless. AlisVet lets you get underway by tracking Medical Visit Analysis. Next, you can perform regular searches on your medical records and master problems to identify patients that may benefit from new procedures and products. Studies have shown that up to 35% of gross revenue can be captured through effective patient compliance follow-up. Through AlisVet you may analyze compliance on a patient and practice level. Compliance can be tracked, reports can be generated, and problems identified and rectified. AlisVet allows you to link reminders to problems and findings – not just invoice items. In addition, AlisVet’s integrated email capability can reduce costs; and allows you to roll out effective follow-up, compliance, and medical programs for your patients without the prohibitive material and delivery expenses.
Every Search Yields a Find So often overlooked in the purchase of software are the powerful search capabilities and features critical to effective client marketing. A good search engine should be able to search across related tables, use "and, or, except" combinations, allow for queries in current selection, add results to selection, and remove results from selection. Software with these features will provide you with data mining that will produce the results you need. You’ll create opportunities to market to your clients by building an automated system that will secure and compile the data for you in the background as you build your electronic medical record. Then you’ll discover how to undertake simple searches that will create mail merges to communicate with your clients, and ultimately you’ll use the software to help educate your clients. With intuitive digital linking, your system will create the health report, compliance, master problems, educational forms and images, and more.
Sense of Touch For all the duties, processes, and procedures you find yourself juggling during any given day, with AlisVet’s medical record-centric system all you have to do is direct your focus to the creation of your electronic medical record, and AlisVet will do the rest. For the health of your patients, and the life of your practice you’ll find that you can count on AlisVet to support you at every turn.
