Implementation Services
Implementation of practice management software and an electronic medical record is a large project. Don't be fooled by people who tell you that you can do this in a matter of hours or a few days! You are installing a serious information system that will run most of your practice functions, and it is obviously important to get it right the first time. Careful consideration of how you want to customize your software will determine whether your system will provide you the information you need, not only to care for your patients, but also to manage your practice.
Independent Urgent Care and Family Practice Providers with No Occ Med
For start-up Urgent Care clinics that do not offer occ med services, STIX can be implemented in approximately 30-45 days, assuming you have staff with expertise in your practice, and have empowered them to make decisions to customize the software. For example, your pricing, as well as allowable discount pricing, needs to be set up before you go live. If you are a start-up, you will need to become approved with the payors in your geographic area, if you haven't already done so. If you plan to submit claims electronically, you will need to work with the intermediary to get approvals from the payors, complete test submissions, and so on. Integritas provides guidance and support, but many of the tasks can only be done by your staff, and they must have the time to do it.
Integritas will work closely with you on a defined project plan that we jointly manage. We provide substantial online training to prepare your staff to use STIX, and right before you are ready to go live, we send staff to your site to train your users. We know most medical practice offices haven't undergone many software implementations, and we are prepared to guide you at every step.
Occupational Medicine Providers
Providers who have an existing clientele of employers to whom you offer occupational medicine and workers' comp services have a more challenging implementation, and the process typically takes 60-90 days or more, depending on your size, whether you operate in a hospital environment and need to interface STIX with other systems within the hospital, and how many clients you currently serve.
Integritas uses a baseball metaphor to manage the implementation process, so that you and your team always have a sense of where you are in the process, what needs to be done now, what's ahead, etc. We have found this very workable for our clients, since most of the time, the users have never been through such a process before.
The entire process is managed by the Integritas Account Manager, who works with your implementation team as a coach. We provide an Implementation Workbook to facilitate the project. The Workbook includes both educational materials and a Resource CD with various forms and spreadsheets that clients typically find extremely useful. The team holds weekly, scheduled conference calls so that we all have set time aside to answer questions. After each call, an updated Open Items List is emailed to your project Team Manager by the Integritas Account Manager.
A substantial amount of online training occurs prior to "go live", so that your staff can make educated choices to set up the database. Starting immediately after the project is launched, we also take your providers through what we like to think of as "spring training"––in keeping with our baseball metaphor. We want your providers to be completely fit and warmed up with the EHR by the time you go live, so we schedule online training and practice sessions with them. Like anything else, they will get better and faster with practice––and your reimbursement levels will show for it. Your providers will leave at the end of the day with the rest of the staff, with their charting notes done!
Integritas helps ensure that all the necessary tasks are completed prior to our coming on site for end user training, so that when the user training is done, you will be ready to "go live" within a few days. This helps ensure the users don't forget what they have learned prior to "go live." Some of the functions your users won't need until a few weeks later, we save for online training a few weeks later. This keeps the users from having to learn everything at once, which most of them appreciate.
Work Flow Consulting
In addition to the standard implementation services, which focus on the proper tailoring of STIX to meet your specific practice needs, Integritas also offers workflow consulting. User training will train your staff how to use the software. Who, specifically, is accountable to complete certain tasks, however, and when they do them, is a matter of workflow. How the software integrates with your current procedures, and which of your current procedures are no longer needed once the software is installed, are matters of workflow. If you have relied on a paper chart in a bin on the door to let you know where to go next, what will you do without paper charts? These are examples of simple questions of workflow.
Integritas offers workflow consulting services. We come on site to work with your staff to understand existing workflows, and help develop new workflows that take into account the efficiencies you can realize with the software. Within two weeks of the onsite visit, we will provide an interim written report of recommendations, including suggested alterations to existing workflow. After review of this report and a follow-up conference call, we will complete the final recommendations, based on feedback from you and your staff. From this report, you will be able to develop policies and procedures for the staff, to ensure the software is properly integrated into operations.
Workflow analysis and consulting can save you months of sorting this out for yourself. Don't take our word for it: ask someone you know who has implemented and electronic medical record and listen to what they tell you about it. Ask them if they had any workflow consulting, and if not, whether they wish they had!
We are a busy Urgent Care/Occ Med clinic at LAX airport, Los Angeles. We implemented STIX in record time because Integritas provided a high level of support. Our physicians like the EHR, and within a few days, they were up to speed. It’s very easy to use. Given the combination of patients that we treat for urgent care and occupational medicine, I would highly recommend STIX to any provider who is serious about meeting the needs of these patient groups.