A Day in the Life of a Doctor
Imagine walking into your office, preparing to see 20 patients that day, and knowing you have limited time with each of them. You want to be prepared for each patient; but in reality, you will fly from appointment to appointment with no time for a breather.
For medical professionals, each day seems to get shorter and the task lists seem to get longer. There are endless amounts of data that professionals need to enter after seeing each patient. For doctors who see about 20 patients a day, that’s a lot of data entry. Anything that helps with workflow efficiency and saves time is critical. PatientLink has automated the data entry process and empowered doctors to be more prepared for the patient visit.
I feel more confident that it will be done correctly more often … PatientLink has been helpful all the way through, said Dr. Richard Hellman, clinical endocrinologist at Hellman & Rosen Endocrine Associates, a practice in Kansas City, Missouri.
PatientLink Saves Time
Patients have multiple options for completing forms: – Online before the appointment – A kiosk or iPad in the doctor’s office – Paper forms at home or in the office.
Regardless of how patients complete the forms, the information is immediately available for the clinician to review as discrete structured data in the EHR — just as if it had been manually entered. We are able to get patients in a room to see the doctor in a much timelier manner, said Sara Fletcher, IT Manager at General Surgeons of Western Colorado and Urological Associates of Western Colorado.
The clinician reviews the information in the EHR and is able to edit the notes entered by PatientLink. One physician described the process of data flowing into her charts so quickly and easily with an exclamation of Its magical!.
PatientLink Provides Crucial Data that May Otherwise Be Overlooked
While assessing the patient, the doctor must make a diagnosis that factors in all types of information. PatientLink forms are immensely helpful – recording patient medical history, family history, symptoms, medications and allergies, history of the current illness, and many other types of patient medical data.
Dr. Hellman shares an example of an elderly patient with diabetes who came into his office because of extremely high blood sugar. While he was concerned about the patient’s blood sugar, the PatientLink information was able to show him the patient was also complaining of abdominal pain. Dr. Hellman realized his patient had a bigger problem than high blood sugar and he was quickly able to address the issue. PatientLink not only saves time, but is a crucial element in the diagnosis process and patient care.
I’m kind of a skeptic on medical tools … PatientLink has made seeing patients — especially new patients — much easier, and we can spend more time dealing with acute issues, said Dr. Phillip Bressoud, lead physician champion of electronic medical records at University of Louisville Physicians in Louisville, Kentucky.
PatientLink provides many benefits to doctors, nurses, medical assistants and patients. Contact us to see how PatientLink can help your office save time and money – and improve patient care.
