8 Reasons Why Your Physician's Office Needs A Website

The list source is this article by Mary Pat Whaley, displayed at Manage My Practice resource blog.
 

1. Establish a digital presence for the practice, just as you have established a physical presence for your practice. Stake a claim that declares “I’m here!”
2. Establish your medical authority. Provide customized health information to existing patients and future patients.
3. Tell your story. Say hello and be real.
4. Be the connector. Connect patients to information, resources, and to each other!
5. Be a portal for your patients. Let them get their records, their lab tests, their prescriptions, and their appointments online, at a time convenient to them.
6. Communicate quickly. Make announcements. React to health news when it happens.
7. Give directions to your physical practice.
8. Provide your patients the convenience of paying their bill online

The High Cost of Healthcare: Infographic

Via: Medical Billing And Coding

The Patient Portal and Your Practice

A recent editorial article from Fierce Health IT notes the potential ways a patient can interact with a portal:

 "Among the benefits are the ability of patients to do the following online: request refills; make appointments; view lab results; receive reminders about needed preventive and chronic care; ask their doctor a question; fill out a medical history or a family and social history; view statements; and pay bills.

Article Source

A patient portal is more than a self-service option for patients. It is a secure and permanent platform for patient-to-provider communication. This increases the transparency of the healthcare relationship as well as limits the potential for communication breakdown. For this reason alone, the patient portal is a must have for every practice.

Is Healthcare Ready For Social Media?

A recent Capstrat-Public Policy Polling survey revealed that 84% of respondents would not use social media or instant messaging channels to communicate with their doctor. The survey was completed by 843 registered voters. Additionally, the results show that patients are more willing to complete healthcare related administrative tasks online. This trend has been increasing, along with the number of doctors offering patient portals to complete such tasks.


The boundary between social media interaction and personal privacy is increasingly difficult to identify. This is a large reason for the hesitance in social media adoption by both patients and doctors. Additionally, many doctors are unsure of the legal consequences involved with online interaction. The current framework of social networks is not designed to support the healthcare industry. A social media experience in healthcare requires a dynamic platform designed around compliance and security while at the same time allowing interaction with a wide range of providers, including physicians, hospitals, labs, insurance pharmacies and government agencies.

AcuMedSoft Selected to Participate in Bull City Stampede

We are very excited to announce our participation in the first annual Bull City Stampede. We are 1 of 11 selected participants out of 78 entrants. We want to thank the program leaders at the Durham Chamber of Commerce for all their hard work and preparation... it is shaping up to be a great 60 days. Check out the other participants below:

• Appuware – providing cloud-based tools and services for mobile publishers.
• Blink Coupons – Customer loyalty cards for small businesses.
• Bound Custom Journals – customizable journals for travel, sketching, writing etc.
• Clinical Ambassador – a cultural attaché connecting science and minority communities to advanced medical discovery.
• Finger Puppet Games Inc. – develops 3D games; built for mobile devices and monetized through microtransactions.
• Fitsistant – a service of on-call physical training coaches and scheduling assistants combined with personal fitness software.
• Haiti Hub – providing Haitian Creole e-language learning services to English speakers invested in Haiti’s future.
• LearnVC – VCHub.com (operated by LearnVC) simplifies raising capital by modeling investment scenarios to educate entrepreneurs and collaborate with potential investors.
• Little Green Software – develops apps for smartphones, tablets, game systems and online.
• Rippple – an online platform helping communities to support entrepreneurs.

Press:


Durham Herald Sun

Triangle Business Journal

Planning To Win: Success With Health IT

Study : The Benefits Of Health Information Technology

A recently released report, co-authored by the National Coordinator for Health IT, found that 92% of recent health IT articles showed improvements in healthcare through the implementation of IT. The specific improvements are noted in the chart below. It is important to note that the study only analyzed the effects of health IT on certain aspects of patient care. Further research is needed to address the possible benefits of health IT on information security and data analysis in determining health trends.

Source: Health Affairs

The overarching theme of successful implementation of any health technology is to have a plan that includes all stakeholders, including the patients. A complete plan includes consideration for IT leadership, budget, implementation, training and a road map that includes milestones for a smooth transition. Most of all, a plan requires full support from all who are involved. As the study states, the "Human Element" is the most important factor.

Online Meaningful Use Resources

Information about the EHR Incentive Program is widely available on the internet. The websites below contain highly valuable health IT resources, news, opinion and regulatory information.

• The Center for Medicare and Medicaid - EHR Incentive Program
• Main site and primary resource available to learn about the programs.  A very useful feature of the website is the Frequently Asked Questions database.

• ONC Health IT - Meaningful Use Resources
• Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT. Links to studies and press releases, all current and relevant, about meaningful use and EHR topics.  Valuable sections include : Talking to Your Patients about EHRs and the Benefits of EHRs.

• HIMSS Meaningful Use
• Links to hundreds of documents, tools and other websites all discussing the EHR incentive program and meaningful use. A complete visit to the site will answer all your questions about meaningful use criteria, how to receive the incentive money and the best practices for implementing processes and achieving meaningful use in your office. We particularly like the Emerging Technologies section, which has articles about future trends in health IT.

• Life as a Healthcare CIO
• A popular blog written by hospital CIO John Halamka, MD. With approximately 240-250 posts per year, this blog is a must read. The topics are mostly pertinent to healthcare and HIT, but often include macro themes about health IT infrastructure and government policy. Additionally, he writes about insights from his personal life and includes a weekly post of his favorite new technology.

• Kevin MD
• Physician Kevin Pho runs this popular blog with the tagline "Social Media's Leading Physician Voice". It is updated multiple times a day and features articles and commentary written by a wide range of healthcare experts. Sometimes the debate raging in the comments of the article is another great source of information. Less Health IT, but still a great read.

• Twitter
•  The vibrant social media network is the place to search for popular topics in healthcare and health IT. Simply search any keyword and instantly find relevant recent tweets from people in the industry. Popular healthcare keywords include "Health IT,  EHR, EMR, HIE,  Meaningful Use, HIT, CCHIT, HIMSS, ONC"
• Don't forget to follow us @AcuMedSoft