The Role of Information
Technology For A Private
Medical Practice
Noel Chua
Rosalinda Raymundo
BACKGROUND
 Ellwood Medical Group
 Zelienople and Ellwood City
 5 Doctors, 1 Nurse Practitioner
 5 Offices
 Ellwood City Hospital
 8000 patients
MAJOR PLAYERS
 Doctors and Nurse Practitioner
 Office staff (secretaries, nurses, etc)
 Insurers
 Pharmacies
OBJECTIVE
 To analyze the problems encountered
primarily by doctors in EMG and
propose a system that will provide
solutions to these problems especially
through information technology
PROBLEMS IDENTIFIED
 Patient record inaccessibility
 Poor scheduling process and no
monitoring of incoming lab results and
outstanding messages
 No integration of diagnosis and billing
codes
PROBLEMS CONTINUED
 No alerts for missed health
maintenance protocols
 No alerts for lack of progress towards
an expected goal
 No process for tracking down referrals
and consultation
PROBLEMS CONTINUED
 Lack of customized flowsheets for
various medical problems
 No process of tracking prescriptions
filled by the pharmacies
 No process of tracking adverse drug
reactions according to different
categories such as by patient, drug, or
pharmacy
PROBLEMS CONTINUED
 No process available to access single or
groups of medical records by specific
clinical attributes
 No process for alerting physician on
non-covered medicines or HMO
authorization requirements
ANALYSIS OF THE
REQUIREMENTS OF THE
PROBLEMS
 To improve accessibility requires a
system that will allow capture and
storage of patient data easily retrievable
at the point of care
 The system should be capable of
different administrative functions
ANALYSIS CONTINUED
 The system should support physicians
in the proper use of billing codes,
integrating these codes with diagnosis
codes and procedural codes
 The system should have an alert
system that will trigger a response from
the physician when treatment objectives
are not satisfied
ANALYSIS CONTINUED
 The system should enable physicians to
do ad hoc queries such as tracking
referrals and consultations
 The system should allow physicians to
view nationally accepted practice
guidelines on demand and enable
physicians to provide relevant handouts
ANALYSIS CONTINUED
 The system must be able to alert physician
whether a prescription is filled or not filled
 The system should be able to monitor and
alert physician about adverse drug reactions
and classify them according to causation
 The system must allow physicians or
authorized users access to single or groups
of medical records by specific attributes
ANALYSIS CONTINUED
 The system should alert physician about
non-covered medication and likely
requires integration with the systems of
the pharmacy or the insurers
MAJOR VENDOR
IDENTIFIED
 MCKESSON HBOC www.hboc.com
 Strategic mix of applications and
technologies, support and services
designed to support the entire health
delivery process
 Allows physicians and other clinicians to
document patient information at the
point of care
HBOC CONTINUED
 Allows management of cash flow, monitor
risk, maintain and share patient
demographics and medical records
 Allows scheduling of services and resources
 Allows access, control, analysis and
integration and sharing of financial and
patient information throughout the
organization
HBOC CONTINUED
 Offers managed care software solutions
for providers beginning to assume risk
for patient populations as well as
managed care organizations
 Offers decision support tools for the
provider and payor markets by giving
them access to diverse sources of
information, powerful analytical
functions, and extensive reporting and
presentation tools
HBOC CONTINUED
 Offers extensive clinical management tools to
optimize quality, appropriateness and costeffectiveness of patient care
 Offers comprehensive financial management
tools that facilitate detailed cost accounting
and budgeting analysis, resource utilization
analysis, member management, risk
assessment
GAPS IN EXISTING
SOLUTIONS
 HBOC does not allow customization of
chart formats and specialty specific
formats
 Has limited support for customizing
flowsheets
 Does not track prescriptions filled
 Does not track causes of adverse drug
reactions
GAPS CONTINUED
 Does not have the ability to handle
clinical problem solving
 Does not support education for
drug/food interactions
CONCLUSION
 EMG needs a system that will:
 allow an integrated delivery of health
service
 streamline all work processes
 integrate all office functions,
 monitor patient outcomes and alert
physicians
CONCLUSION CONTINUED
 Boost efficiency and productivity
 This requires a considerable investment
of its resources in order to adapt and
stay competitive in a technology driven
society