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Dr. Sara Dickie: Opening Her Practice and Streamlining Operations with ModMed®

Published Date
Author modmed

Case Study

Practice Goals

  • Implement all-in-one plastic surgery software
  • Automate processes and tasks
  • Streamline operations 

Key Benefits Experienced

  • Streamlined workflows and operations
  • Suggested coding speeds up documentation
  • Gained transparency across the office
  • Improved retail inventory tracking 

Learn how one plastic surgeon organized her new office with the help of ModMed

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“ModMed is so much more than a charting system. It’s been like my electronic medical office manager. EMA prompts me through a visit, suggests billing codes based on my documentation and I can finalize my notes the same day. The PM system is so user-friendly. The front desk can easily schedule, view patient balances, and access patient charts. ”

SARA DICKIE, MD

BACKGROUND

Dr. Sara Dickie has been practicing plastic surgery in the Chicago area for over a decade. After years of working with a group, she ventured out to start her own practice. Dr. Dickie opened Surgical Aesthetics + Reconstructive Arts in 2022 offering cosmetic and reconstructive surgery with a particular interest in facial aesthetics.

At her previous group, Dr. Dickie used ModMed’s EHR, EMA®, for her clinical documentation and found the system so user friendly that she wanted to utilize it at her new practice. In addition to EMA, she implemented ModMed’s plastic surgery suite to include the Practice Management (PM), ModMed PayⓇ and Inventory Management platforms. She shares why implementing ModMed was the right choice.

EMA: A STRONG PLASTIC SURGERY SOFTWARE

Although I loved using EMA at my previous group, I wanted to be sure I did my due diligence, so I looked at a few other systems. What I discovered when evaluating these other popular platforms was that they were not nearly as strong in suggestive coding and documentation as EMA. This solidified that ModMed was still the right choice. 

In the last two years, I’ve shifted from mainly reconstructive services to more growth and focus on our aesthetic offerings, which was my plan. I’ve grown to be a more formalized plastic surgical practice, and I feel like EMA has evolved nicely with me.

I absolutely love that EMA prompts me through a visit and suggests billing codes based on my documentation. I utilize a scribe and can notate any specifics I want to add. I review the codes before I finalize the note and submit the order for surgery. That only takes a few minutes or less depending on the complexity of the visit. There’s not a lot of fine-tuning we have to do on the back end and I finalize all of my notes the same day.

SEAMLESS COMMUNICATION

Having an all-in-one system is key to my office functioning efficiently. The PM system is so user friendly. The front desk can easily schedule, view patient balances, and access patient charts to pull needed information. My staff and I communicate via Intramail, and because of the transparency of information, I feel like nothing gets lost. That, to me, is huge. 

We also use the tasking system for communicating patient-related duties, especially things that need to be done a few weeks later. This replaces putting a sticky note on your computer for four weeks to remind you to order a script for a patient, for example. Once you set a task and assign it to somebody you can monitor it and it has a checks and balances component to it. It’s wonderful. 

Our seamless office communication helps prevent gaps in the patient journey. We don’t receive patient complaints because the system helps keep our operations tight and efficient. With ModMed Pay, we can store credit cards on file and send out payment requests through text-to-pay, which is convenient for patients and has helped keep our A/R low.

The Inventory Management system is amazing because now we can more accurately quantify how much we’re selling by simply running a report. This also helps us determine what products are generating revenue and where we need to reduce inventory. The retail component is not my strong suit, so having this functionality has given me confidence that we’re not losing revenue on unnecessary retail because we can see what’s working and what’s not. We’re able to make quick, efficient decisions that are supported by data.

MUCH MORE THAN AN EHR

ModMed is so much more than a charting system. It’s been like my electronic medical office manager. If you are considering a new system, or opening a new practice like I did, my advice is to commit and get it right from the start. We worked very hard in the beginning, with the support of ModMed, to make sure things were set up correctly for how I wanted my practice to run. Now, my office runs efficiently, my patients and staff are happy and my practice has grown. 

To learn more about the products Dr. Sara Dickie discussed, please request a demo at modmed.com/plastic-surgery or call 561.235.7504

The statements and conclusions contained herein reflect the opinions of Dr. Sara Dickie and not those of ModMed. ModMed makes no representations or warranties as to the accuracy of any such information. Results may vary depending on medical practice size, product usage and other variables.