“What used to take an hour, now takes ten minutes with WRS.”

Park Medical Center Finds That It Pays to Have WRS Billing Module

If you or your billing specialists are still posting checks manually, you are probably wondering if there is a more productive and efficient way that this crucial task can be accomplished.

For evidence that there is a better way, look no further than Park Medical Center, a primary care practice in Orange Park, FL. Founded in 1972, Park Medical Center’s three physicians and 12 administrative staffers and Medical Assistants began using WRS Family Practice EHR and Practice Management System three years ago.

In 2009, Park Medical Center began evaluating about eight EHR systems, including AllScripts before choosing WRS.

“What used to take an hour, now takes ten minutes with WRS,” says Desiree Centalonza, Park Medical Center’s Billing Specialist, commenting on WRS Revenue Cycle Management’s auto-posting feature.

Daily Cash Flow

Centalonza explained, “Instead of having to manually post the entire check, depending on whether it’s commercial or Medicare, nine times out of ten all I do is just enter the contracts and I’m done with that particular post. Before WRS, we had to do everything. Now, it’s just a click away from being done, it’s great. Because we are receiving remittances electronically, the turnaround is just between 14 and 18 calendar days. Because we are filing daily versus using a service that’s filing weekly, we have a daily cash flow versus a weekly to biweekly cash flow.”

According to Centalonza, WRS alerts the practice if a diagnosis was entered twice on the same claim form. “WRS will catch it. Those little things help. We’ve made it to the Clearinghouse’s 99 percenter club four or five times this year alone. Our rejections are less than 1%,” she said in her review.

Always On The Go

Accessibility from any place at any time also ranked high on Park Medical Center’s EHR wish list. “Our office is accessible 24 hours a day and there is always a physician on call. WRS makes everything easier, especially if one of the physicians is on call and he is dealing with another physician’s patients. That physician is able to access the patient’s chart and correctly help them with their issue as well as see what the other physician did recently,” stated Centalonza.

E-Prescribing Wonders

Yet another must-have Family Practice EHR feature that Park Medical Center was searching for was e-prescribing. “We use the WRS e-prescribing capability every single day. The biggest benefit is that it’s a cost saver. We’re not buying Rx pads to write prescriptions out, it’s all being done paperless. Everything is electronic. Rx pads got expensive for security prescriptions, so it’s money that is being saved. Plus, you are saving money because it doesn’t take as much time to write Rxs. You look at the patient, and say, ‘Your Rx should be there when you get to your pharmacy.’ Even if the patient calls us requesting a refill, we do it by a note in the system, and if the physician approves it, he sends it electronically right then and there,” said Centalonza.

Pointing out in her review that WRS e-prescribing capability also enables the practice to more accurately track Rxs that it gives to patients, Centalonza said, “We have e-prescribing set up in the system, so the physicians see every time a prescription is created. We also use the Continuity of Care, which is a snapshot of whether there has been any medications that didn’t work. If the patient saw no benefit from a medication, the physician is able to see that versus prescribing it and then having to go back and prescribe something else.”

Centalonza emphasized yet another benefit of WRS e-prescribing capability. “Patients love being able to walk out of the office, go straight to the pharmacy and their Rx is ready for them. They absolutely prefer this over having to take a piece of paper, go to the pharmacy, and then wait anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours before they can get their medication. This is important, especially when patients come in and they are sick so they need an antibiotic or something of that nature,”said Centalonza.

Patient Portal Perks

Despite the fact that many of the practice’s elderly patients do not use computers, Park Medical Center is seeing an uptick in those patients and caregivers who are accessing WRS exclusive Patient Portal. “We have a couple of patients who are computer literate and they love the fact that they can go into the portal to request their refills, request their scheduled appointments, and ask any kind of question. As time goes by, it seems that patients are utilizing the portal more, which we can tell just by some of the questions they have started to ask. Most of our patients are Medicare patients so quite a few of them are elderly and don’t use computers. Our patient usage of the portal is about 20%. The caregivers, who represent more of the younger generation are definitely using computers,” said Centalonza.

Park Medical Center is also accruing many benefits from utilizing WRS Patient Appointment Reminders. “If we have patients’ email addresses, they receive an email and phone reminder. Since using this feature it seems our amount of no shows has decreased. Before, we were doing the (appointment) reminder calls manually and it would usually take 2 hours,” explained Centalonza in her review.

Don’t Miss the MU Boat

Having a certified EHR system that would enable the practice to quality for Meaningful Use was also on Park Medical Center’s wish list. “MU was on the radar. We wanted to make sure we were getting a certified Family Practice EHR system that Medicare approved. There are four (MU) payments. The physicians are attesting for the four years that they are using the EHR and each year they get a payment. With the reports that WRS has in the system, their guidelines are strictly aligned with what Medicare has. As long as you are using your tools, looking at them in a timely manner, and not waiting until the 39th hour to decide, you can pick and choose how and when you want to run everything. You can do little spot checks so you’re able to tell the physicians what they may need to add along with what they are doing okay on. You can follow right along throughout the whole process.”

Lab Connectivity Increases Safety

WRS lab connectivity capability is a win/win for Park Medical Center and its patients. “We’re able to get the labs directly into the patient’s charts. Since you are not using a piece of paper, you are not putting someone’s labs into the wrong chart. You don’t have to worry about looking at a male patient and talking about having a menopausal panel that was done. Or you have a female patient in front of you and you start talking about PSA. You don’t have those kinds of things happening. It's the same thing when any pathologies are done; you don’t have those kinds of mistakes because it’s electronically connected. And if there is an issue with anything, you have to pair it with the actual patient by name and date of birth. That ensures patient safety as well,” stated Centalonza.

Templates Are a Fave

Emphasizing in her review that WRS Family Practice Templates were set up according to each of the physicians’ needs, Centalonza said, “Now that the physicians have been doing it for three years, they finally see the efficiency. Switching from paper to electronic was a little painful at first. They still wanted their piece of paper; but now if there is an issue with the Internet or the website and we bring them a piece of paper they have a panicked look on their face, like, what am I supposed to do with this? Instead of that little checklist you had in your mind as you went back in with your patients, now you have a checklist constantly in front of you. As far as when you are looking at your patient’s chart you literally have all of the necessary information at your fingertips versus before when you were struggling going through a chart looking for everything.”

Dictation Rules

Customized templates aren’t the only crowd pleaser at Park Medical Center. “One of the things we were looking for was a user-friendly EHR system for the physicians. We wanted a Family Practice EHR that they would be able to dictate directly into, such as with Dragon software. It saves them a lot of time as far as dictation. Not all physicians are great typists. So instead of having to hunt and peck on a keyboard they use Dragon to do all of their dictating. They love it,” said Centalonza.

Time For Training

WRS myriad opportunities for training continually benefits Park Medical Center. “Myself, one other Medical Assistant and three physicians initially attended the webinars before we actually went live on the system. There’s been a couple of other webinars due to the bilateral lab connection we’ve taken. The practice has gone through those webinars. I’ve sat through all of the billing webinars and we’ve done some of the other ones. If we hire new personnel we use the self-guided documents and we have our new employees sit and watch those videos. The webinars are great. If you have some specific questions, you have live feedback.”

Don’t Forget Updates

What about updates? “Every time WRS updates system it shows up on our home sign-in page and we have a staffer who is responsible for printing them. Everyone reads them and initials them. The updates have been very informative. They are short and sweet. WRS is good about using screen shots to show you what you should be seeing,” said Centalonza.

Fax Queue To The Rescue

Time is of the essence. No worries. WRS Fax Queue is a time saver. “We do use WRS Fax Queue to fax everything. It saves us a little bit of time because we’re not using just one machine any more. If a referring physician wants to see the notes from several visits, we can fax it in seconds. You don’t have to waste time printing anything out. You just click and you’re done,” remarked Centalonza.

When queried what Park Medical Center’s philosophy is, Centalonza was concise when she replied, “We believe the patient comes first and that we’re here because we care.” Centalonza was a little bit more long winded when it came to her assessment of WRS. “WRS system is very affordable. Because of how small we are, in the long run, it would have cost us more money to try to set up own on server in this office. WRS definitely has some great features. WRS is very user friendly and compatible with all modules of the system. I have no complaints whatsoever. WRS was very good to us. Customer service is excellent,” she concluded in her review.

Family Practice Testimonial

WRS Health thanks Desiree Centalonza for sharing her review of the WRS Family Practice EHR.