Panhandle Orthopaedics Streamlines Workflow, Saves Staff Time and Improves Billing

Orthopedic software helps improve multiple facets at a Florida orthopedic practice.

A New Orthopedic EHR Solution for a Growing Practice

Panhandle Orthopaedics is a unique orthopedic practice, with workers compensation and personal injury cases accounting for about 70 percent of their patient population. A one-stop orthopedic office, Panhandle Orthopedics provides in-house diagnostic imaging, interventional pain management, durable medical equipment (DME) inventory and an on-site pharmacy.

Samantha Childs’ Perspective – Billing Administrator

With one orthopedic surgeon, two physical therapists, five nurses and over 25 administrative and office staff across three locations, we knew it was time to look for an all-in-one orthopedic electronic health records (EHR) system and orthopedic practice management (PM) suite that could meet the needs of our quickly growing practice.

I previously used Modernizing Medicine’s EMA™ EHR system in another practice many years ago, so I knew what a great solution it was. When I joined this orthopedic practice and realized we needed a new all-in-one system, I recommended we take a look at the modmed® Orthopedics suite. My staff loved that EMA was so easy to use and visit notes can be completed quickly.

Previously, we had separate orthopedic EHR and practice management systems and various outsourced services that slowed down our entire workflow. By switching to the all-in-one modmed Orthopedics suite with EHR and PM, we streamlined our workflow and improved efficiencies for our entire staff.

With the automatic coding suggestions that EMA provides, we can handle all of the orthopedic billing operations in-house and eliminate our outsourced coding and transcription services, saving the practice about $2,000 per month and saving staff time with a more streamlined workflow. We went from using multiple vendors for EHR, PM, analytics, coding services and transcription services to Modernizing Medicine’s orthopedics suite that addresses our needs in one solution.

The in-house physical therapy group also uses EMA to help improve efficiencies. EMA interfaces directly with the WebPT EMR that our physical therapy group uses, allowing orders and results to transfer electronically between the two systems. The interface between EMA and WebPT has been a time saver for the staff. The physical therapy notes are sent back quickly and automatically added to the patient’s chart, eliminating the manual process of scanning and attaching them to the chart.

The orthopedic EHR EMA and Practice Management work seamlessly together to help streamline appointment scheduling, check-in, checkout and orthopedic billing processes among our front office, billing department and clinical staff. Financial information is updated in real time to help us improve claims processing and revenue collections.

The biggest advantage for our billing staff is their ability to see the status of claims and A/R. I can sort the claims and see exactly what I need to follow up on. The claims management process – including submission, scrubbing by the clearinghouse, denial notifications and remittance advice – has been very helpful and easy to understand. Overall our billing team feels quite positive about the PM solution and the transition to it.

Modernizing Medicine is dedicated to building long-lasting customer trust and satisfaction, and their support team makes the company a good fit for our fast-paced practice. I have always had positive experiences working with the support team whenever I have a question or issue. While the modmed Orthopedics suite is always evolving and improving, it continues to be a great solution that meets the needs of our practice.

Nicole Mayo’s Perspective – Daily Operations Administrator

With so many moving parts in our complex practice, implementation of the modmed Orthopedics suite took some time and effort. The transition for our staff was a bit challenging because they had used their old system for several years, but our Modernizing Medicine implementation team was phenomenal and we couldn’t have had better on-site trainers. Because our patient population is so unique, we constantly asked them off-the-wall questions and they always worked with us to find the answer. However, we didn’t slow down for long. We only pulled back for three or four weeks to get used to the new system and then we ramped back up to full speed seeing about 55 patients a day.

We use the modmed Orthopedics suite to help make our internal processes more efficient. We have evaluated our entire clinical workflow, and we eliminated many manual processes and saved administrative time for our staff to dedicate to better patient care.

Prior to EMA, it would take our staff days to complete visit notes and a couple of our nurses would consistently stay after office hours or come in on weekends. One of our goals when we transitioned to EMA was to complete visit notes within 24-hours. Quickly after implementation, we met this goal. Now with EMA, our staff can complete all of the notes during the patient visit or shortly thereafter for some of our more complex patients, and no one stays after hours or works weekends.

My front office staff loves the check-in and check-out processes of the orthopedic Practice Management system, especially the ability to view outstanding balances for collections before the appointment. This is much better than our previous system. We had separate EHR and PM systems and we had to log into both and manually enter information between the two systems. The integration between EMA and PM is great!

The modmed Orthopedics suite has been a valuable time management tool for our staff. We are much more efficient with our time from the front desk, to the workers’ compensation team, to the clinical providers. The staff feels very comfortable with the orthopedic software and now we plan to increase our patient load.

Modernizing Medicine is always open to enhancements and suggestions, which makes them a great vendor for our practice to grow with.