In the past, Healthcare professionals often found it challenging to communicate with their patients outside of office visits. eClinicalWorks, a software provider responsible for electronic health records attempted to bridge the gap between patient and medical practice. While a noble effort, the results did not address the need for a fully comprehensive system that would meet the needs of the Integrative, Anti-Aging and Functional Medicine patient-care practices. As the medical field expanded and developed, the need to interact with patients in an expedient manner became more pressing to ensure effective results. Power2Practice answered the call and created P2P, an A4M approved integrated system. The eClinicalWorks system cannot come close to P2P functionality.
Electronic Medical Records Made Easy
Imagine a user-friendly system so comprehensive that it addresses the unique clinical needs and business demands of integrative medicine practices through a seamless workflow management of electronic health records and holistic business solutions. While this may seem like a lofty goal, P2P has been able to achieve what the other software providers such as eClinicalWorks have not. To make this even more exciting is that the P2P cross platform expands around the globe, available on a multinational level for both patients and physicians.
The system taking the medical profession by storm is Power2Practice. The first integrative medical platform that offers both the stable functionality required by physicians, but also personalized care support not available in other electronic medical records systems offered by companies such as eClinicalWorks. What many who do not use P2P are discovering is that we offer services that go beyond the inter-office electronic medical records and reach out to the support industries who assist with the daily functions of a successful medical practice.
Medical practices using P2P have access to exclusive discounts on labs, office supplies, medical supplies and phone service. The software comes complete with a patient portal that allows patients to access their electronic health records online, schedule appointments, request prescription refills, review lab test results and send secure messages to their physician. All of this makes Power2Practice a complete end-to-end software solution for any healthcare provider.
Baby Steps – What Are Digital Records?
In simple terms, electronic medical records (EMR) are digital versions of a paper chart that contains a patient’s medical history from the practice. Like their paper counterparts, electronic records are used by providers for diagnosis and treatment. The information provided in electronic medical records contains the standard medical and clinical data gathered in one provider’s office. Electronic health records (EHRs) are different in that they go beyond the data collected in the provider’s office and include a more comprehensive patient history.
For example, electronic health records are designed to contain and share information from all providers involved in a patient’s care. The data can be created, managed, and consulted by authorized providers and staff from across more than one health care organization. Unlike electronic medical records, which remain with the practice, electronic health records allow a patient’s health record to move with them—to other health care providers, specialists, hospitals, nursing homes, and even across states if necessary.
Benefits of Digital Records
Due to the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) the medical profession is being forced into conforming to the digital age and utilize electronic health records. It has been a widely accepted belief that that the use of electronic health records would result in improved efficiency and cost savings for medical providers across the board. In theory, this would be true, as there have been growing concerns that the use of electronic medical records has potentially diminished the doctor’s ability to focus on the patient, thus negatively impacting a practice in the long run. To make matters more difficult, the available software was troublesome and not user friendly. In broad strokes, electronic medical records are more beneficial than paper records because they allow healthcare providers to:
- Track data over time
- Identify patients who are due for preventive visits and screenings
- Monitor how patients measure up to certain parameters, such as BMI and blood pressure readings
- Improve overall quality of care in a practice
- Increase the productivity and efficiency of the practice, thus increasing profitability
The downside is that the information stored in electronic medical records are not easily shared with providers outside of a practice. A patient’s record might even have to be printed out and delivered by mail to specialists and other members of the care team. While this may be normal for most practices, the process can be time consuming and wasteful of a practice’s resources. Like many traditional EMR systems, the eClinicalWorks platform simplified the most basic of admin tasks, but it didn’t quite address the need for supporting personalized care integrative physicians and practice managers were demanding on a global level. While it may seem intimidating, switching from paper to digital is relatively painless with the assistance of a comprehensive minded software provider like Power2Practice.
More Comprehensive than eClinicalWorks
Power2Practice, a privately held Information Technology and Services company founded in 2011, wanted to create innovative shared information software to serve the new era of individualized medicine. The concept was to focus on the interaction between medical professionals and patients, designing a patient friendly Internet-based portal that would educate and empower patients, as opposed to the eClinicalWorks stored data concept. While these changes are being driven by several federal mandates, physician input from the Integrative, Anti-Aging and Functional Medicine patient-care practices was vital and P2P used this opportunity to improve patient engagement and office workflow.
A Higher Purpose
After years of frustration, many Integrative physicians leave conventional medicine to follow a true passion and reconnect with what inspired them to pursue a career in the medical field in the first place: engagement with the patient to create the best path towards their healing and the future of their well-being. At Power2Practice, we build technologies that bring physicians and patients together for important conversations and provide easy ways to capture feedback on lifestyle habits.
Using this all-encompassing approach to supporting a medical practice, P2P offers more than just a data utilization system, such as the one created by eClinicalWorks. Our core platform for the Integrative medical community has transformed the way doctors run their offices. As equally important, it has changed the way patients engage in their own health care. Personalized medical practices use a more holistic, whole-systems approach to patient care, requiring more patient engagement, empowerment and communication as opposed to traditional western medicine. Additionally, P2P is the only EMR software system that is endorsed by the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M). None of our competitors, including eClinicalWorks can make that claim.
The A4M is dedicated to the advancement of technology to detect, prevent, and treat aging related disease and to promote research into methods to retard and optimize the human aging process. Another focus of the A4M is to educate physicians, scientists, and members of the public on biomedical sciences, breaking technologies, and anti-aging issues which will ultimately result in prolonging the human lifespan. Anti-Aging Medicine as defined by the A4M, is based on the scientific principles of responsible medical care consistent with those of other healthcare specialties. An organization that takes the whole-systems approach to medicine fully endorses P2P as the only software system on the market who addresses the wholeness of the patient.
Electronic Medical Records, A Step Forward
The good news is that healthcare providers use software that allows them to comply with various mandates regarding the implementation of electronic medical records. The downside is that many of these other software packages similar to eClinicalWorks’ platform are cumbersome and provide very little functionality, and do not extend beyond the individual office. In contrast, Power2Practice provides software that can fully satisfy the move towards the implementation of electronic health records in a platform that also supports the daily workflow of integrative, anti-aging and functional medicine practices.
Communication is Key in Educating the Patient
Changing the way we practice medicine depends, in part, on the research that has been conducted and published. Accurate and detailed data is essential for documenting changes that patients experience by applying a practice’s treatment plans. Power2Practice creates a foundation for the practice and the patient to communicate about the journey involved in establishing and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. The P2P platform cultivates open conversations with patients on a cloud-based server that is available wherever there is an Internet connection. This allows the practice to answer the patients in a quick and effective manner, which is impossible with eClinicalWorks’ office-based solution.
There is solid research demonstrating that when patients feel they have received proper care it gives them a sense of confidence that they are receiving value for their money. This translates directly into tangible results, which prove profitable in the long term. Empowering the patient to interact with their healthcare provider often improves outcomes. When a patient takes ownership of their own well-being, they become long term satisfied customers.
Doctors often struggle with trying to provide their patients with personalized care and support outside of the traditional visit. While eClinicalWorks offers a system to share information, it is relegated to the office staff and is unavailable for patient use. P2P’s multifunctional software will educate patients about the benefits of new treatments, procedures and supplements. They are also able to schedule appointments, request prescription refills and access lab results posted to directly their corresponding electronic medical records aiding the in the process of well-being.
Using a system similar to eClinicalWorks, the patient has no input into the process responsible for their well-being. Information is power. The information our Power2Practice system offers empowers patients and encourages them to communicate with their physician regarding their medical care and related needs. As patients download and review their electronic health records, recommendations or treatment plans, they will feel more secure knowing they are in a relationship with your practice.
Communication is never a concern as patients can send secure messages using the HIPAA-secure messaging portal. The physician, or authorized medical staff members, can then respond to those messages. In addition, the overall number of inquiries that the medical staff receives from patients will decrease due to patients’ ability to access electronic medical records through the user-friendly patient portal.
Patient Satisfaction Results in Practice Profitability
The access to knowledge is right at our fingertips, and having a strong Internet presence has become integral to a stable business. In the digital age, patients trust other patients when seeking healthcare provider referrals. Point of fact: A recent study showed that forty two percent of patients claimed that favorable online reviews were a deciding factor in choosing a healthcare provide. So much so, they would be willing to see physicians outside of their insurance network if the doctors had better reviews than those within their network.
Out of the many considerations in choosing a physician, it was the quality of care that ranked highest as far as the most valuable information gleaned from a healthcare review. The information age requires we make decisions at a more rapid rate. Sometimes these choices mean the difference between life and death. In no other profession does this apply more than in the medical profession. The slowness of information, in regards to hard-to-access electronic health records, or the lack of information can prove catastrophic for the patient and the medical practice who is negligent in making the right choice for their patient’s long term well-being. The eClinicalWorks does not offer the conveniences you will find with Power2Practice’s integrated system.