SIMPLICITY™ Product - FAQ's
1. Q: Do I have to change the way I practice?
A: No. SIMPLICITY™ works the way you work. It follows the routines you learned in medical school and residency, the way you practice medicine. It allows you to maintain eye to eye contact with the patient and not with the computer.
2. Q: Is it hard to learn how to use SIMPLICITY™ and what is the "down time" for the practice and the staff?
A: A physician can learn his/her part in an hour. The staff's duties can be learned in a few hours. No computer knowledge is needed.
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3. Q: Is the Manual hard to understand?
A: Not at all. In fact, the Manual is not really needed, it serves as a guide or reference.
4. Q: When I come to the office in the morning, how do I know how many patients I am seeing that day and who they are?
A: Your staff prepares a "patient queue". On this patient queue, you will see the patient's name, the chart number, the date of birth, type of insurance, co-pay, location of the patient, in chronological order. Your staff can update this page very quickly. You can open the patient's electronic chart almost within seconds by tapping on the "folder" icon. If you tap on the "i" icon, you will quickly review the patient's demographics and the details of his/her insurance coverage and referring physician.
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5. Q: How do I find the last Progress Note (encounter note, office visit note or other-wise known as history & physical)?
A: As you enter the examining room to see the patient, you used to flip your paper chart to the last Progress Note. With SIMPLICITY™, by a quick tap on the "folder" icon next to the patient's name, the patient's chart opens up instantaneously. You can access old and current Progress Notes as fast, if not faster, than in the old paper charts.
6. Q: How do I find the patient's Review of Systems?
A: You can find the Review of Systems instantaneously by clicking on "ROS" at the top of your Progress Note.
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7. Q: Can I continue to write the Progress Note (encounter note, office note, history and physical)?
A: Absolutely, you use a stylus instead of a pen and write on the screen like you do on a piece of paper. The "ink technology" stores what you write. It is "paper without the pulp".
8. Q: Can I type?
A: Yes, a keyboard can be attached.
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9. Q: Is voice recognition available?
A: Yes, but it is not 100% accurate.
10. Q: Is handwriting recognition available?
A: Yes, much more accurate than voice recognition.
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11. Q: Do you have a "drop down" template (digital Progress Note) so that a physician does not have to write, type or use the voice/handwriting recognition technology?
A: Yes. We have a very sophisticated, very user friendly decision tree that you can customize to your liking, and with this digital Progress Note, the medical record can be analyzed for clinical studies or "Pay for Performance".
12. Q: If I do not use the digital Progress Note, how can my medical record be analyzed for clinical studies or "Pay for Performance"?
A: If your Progress Note is not a digital Progress Note but if it is typed, either by someone typing it or using the voice/handwriting recognition technology, we are working with a German engineer to take a typed text and analyze it for clinical studies or for "Pay for Performance".
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13. Q: Can I customize my digital Progress Note?
A: Yes. In fact, if you are in a 5 physician practice, you can customize one digital Progress Note for the whole practice or you can customize one for each of the 5 physicians.
14. Q: Are most of the forms customizable?
A: Yes. SIMPLICITY™ staff can show you the list of customizable forms. SIMPLICITY™ is not one size fits all. The overarching principle is SIMPLICITY™ wants to please you. Its source codes are flexible and adaptable.
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15. Q: How does SIMPLICITY™ store test results and correspondences?
A: There is a "cyberspace filing cabinet " with "drawers" in which your staff can quickly store test results and correspondences. The contents can be retrieved within seconds. You can label the drawers anyway you like.
16. Q: How do you write a prescription?
A: By tapping the "add prescription" icon, your customized prescription pad shows up on the screen instantaneously. You can pick from a list of your customized commonly used medications stored alphabetically. By tapping on that drug, you automatically insert that drug and dosage onto your prescription pad. You can also indicate the number of refills. The patient's allergy to medication and the patient's current medications are shown on the same screen to guide you. The prescription can be printed and given to the patient or it can be faxed or e-mailed to the pharmacy. You can still prescribe a medication that is not on your list of favorite medications by just writing on your prescription pad on the computer screen.
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17. Q: Can you fax or e-mail the prescription to the pharmacy?
A: Yes.
18. Q: Can you fax or e-mail a letter to a referring physician?
A: Yes, if you use the Digital Progress Note. If you do not use the digital Progress Note, we can work with your office staff to customize a system for you.
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19. Q: How do I not miss a test or biopsy report?
A: The "test tracking center" is your "special assistant" to remind you the different stages of the tests that you have ordered or the biopsy you have taken.
20. Q: Can SIMPLICITY™ print forms and patient educational material?
A: Yes.
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21. Q: Does it "automatically" do the CPT/ICD coding?
A: It quickly guides you to code appropriately. "Automatic" coding by computer software is under scrutiny by insurance companies and CMS.
22. Q: What do I do with the old paper charts?
A: Various practices handle the old paper medical records differently. Our staff will be glad to sit down with you and your staff to customize the transition that is most cost effective and the least disruptive.
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23. Q: Is SIMPLICITY™ confidential and secure?
A: It is encrypted, HIPPA compliant and has layers of security. One of our senior staff will be glad to discuss this topic with you.
24. Q: Can SIMPLICITY™ handle messages from patients?
A: Yes, there are 2 options, both very user friendly and intuitive. Our staff will explain to you the two options.
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25. Q: Can SIMPLICITY™ handle non-patient messages from one party to another within the practice?
A: Yes.
26. Q: Is SIMPLICITY™ "interoperable"?
A: Yes, but we prefer to use the term "interconnectable" or "interavailable". SIMPLICITY™ can receive/send data to/from another system provided the other system is cooperative.
SIMPLICITY™’s medical records are readily available to any party authorized by the patient. The government and many public-private organizations have been discussing "interoperability" for years and there is still no consensus on its precise meaning.
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27. Q: Why is the practice management/billing system not part of SIMPLICITY™?
A: Most, if not all, practices are very satisfied with their current billing system which is generating their revenue on a timely basis. We do not want to interfere with that while the practice is switching from the paper medical record system or from another EMR system to SIMPLICITY™. We never want to interfere with the work flow of any medical practice. In view of that, we have spent over 10,000 hours designing and supervising software engineers to create an EMR system that works as you work, thinks as you think. It follows the way the doctors practice medicine. In that spirit, we would not want to ask a practice to switch a medical record system and billing system at the same time.
In addition, we have realized for some time that the compensation formula for doctors will change from one that is based on volume to one that is based on "Pay for Performance", on outcome, on quality or following evidence based practice guidelines. Perhaps, the compensation formula will be a hybrid of paying for volume and "Pay for Performance". We are monitoring this very carefully and our engineers are ready to write the source code for the proper billing system.
Articles to support the above are available from our staff:
- Pamela Hartzband, MD, Jerome Groopman, MD: Off the record--avoiding the pitfalls of going electronic. JAMA Vol 358: 1658, April 2008.
- Erich Burett, MD: Cracking the codes. Medical Economics, April 3rd, 2009.
- Stephen Levinson, MD et al: The Perfect Storm. Medical Economics, April 30, 2009.
- Sheldon Black, MD: Electrical Medical Records are no Panacea. Wall Street Journal, April 1st, 2009.
- Mark Leavitt, MD, PhD: New Paths to Certification (mentioning the new criteria for certification). Town Meeting Conference, June 17, 2009, Washington, DC.
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