Dr. Petersen takes pride in her belief that having a staff comprised of "all women" gives them a unique understanding of the problems faced by women of all ages and a unique approach to finding solutions for those problems. When they were ready to begin their search for a new medical software system, it was important for them to find a vendor with the same level of committment to taking care of those they serve.

Challenges That Needed Solutions

In a short period of time, Dr. Petersen had already utilized the services of an outside billing service that used its own practice management system. Later, the office leased a different practice management system in an effort to bring the billing in-house. It didn’t take long for them to realize its shortcomings. Dr. Petersen notes: "It was outdated, costly, and not user-friendly. As the physicians in the practice, we also wanted to be able to keep a close eye on the money going in and out of the practice. Using the old software required extensive training and experience. It was as if it were created to keep us out rather than to let us in to our own records (both billing and collections). After all, this was OUR business, OUR money, the result of OUR hard work, and we had absolutely no way to access it without taking time off for extended training."

"I have a subspecialty oriented patient questionnaire that our patients fill out. The FlexMedical support staff was able to duplicate the questionnaire with little effort within the electronic patient summary sheet."

Searching for a New Practice Management and EMR / EHR Solution

"My partner and I knew that we needed to make huge changes and that the process could potentially be costly. Knowing that we needed both EMR and billing software, it was our goal to find an ‘all-in-one’ package.” Dr. Petersen knew that finding a medical software suite that was balanced could be a challenge as well. “Packages we evaluated usually had good billing software, but less appealing EMR. It often seemed that one part or the other was almost an afterthought to the original software or the other half of the software was always in the works."

FlexMedical's Benefits

The entire staff at Dr. Petersen's office has been pleased with the implementation of FlexMedical. Messages taken by the front office staff are routed electronically to the patients chart while simultaneously alerting the clinical staff that their attention is needed. Dr. Petersen was surprised at the level of customization that FlexMedical afforded her with regard to her templates. "I have a subspecialty-oriented patient questionnaire that our patients fill out. The FlexMedical support staff was able to duplicate the questionnaire with little effort within the electronic patient summary sheet. My nurse puts the patient in the room and can have their medical history entered in a matter of minutes. The built in pregnancy forms are wonderful. They make it easy to track the patient’s progress from visit to visit."

"I see my patients with a laptop/notebook. I make as many notes as I can while I am with the patient, but try not to 'have my nose in a computer' during their visit. With the templates and saved exams, I can drop in the appropriate documentation at lunchtime or after clinic very quickly. This has saved me from dragging home piles of paper and losing charts, and provides better documentation to justify the level of service for their visit."