Express Care is on the Fast Track with WRS EMR

“Thank you to Kim and the gang for getting me out so fast today. You really can go to the Dr. on a 30 min lunch break.” This compliment from a satisfied patient that is posted on Express Care’s Facebook page is a testimony to the fact that the clinic’s founders are indeed living up to their motto, “If you’re sick, we’re quick.”

Clinic Owners Brian Harris, N.P. and Holland Harris, Office Manager not only move patients in and out of the Texarkana, TX based Urgent Care walk-in clinic expediently, they also provide excellent patient care. And, the three-year-old practice’s efficiency is skyrocketing. How is all of this possible?

Urgent Care in a Flash

“WRS Urgent Care EMR helps us with efficiency. It keeps everybody on the same page. Every room in the office can access WRS. It cuts down on time so when we say, “If you’re sick, we’re quick,” it means that when you come in and fill out the paperwork all we have to do is enter you into WRS EMR. As far as medical history, it’s all there. It’s just a click of a button. WRS has really allowed us to stick to our word about getting patients in and out,” said Holland in her case study.

Express Care specializes in urgent care and also provides primary care and occupational medicine services. The practice treats about 30 to 40 patients a day. “Brian has been collaborating with Clayton Nash, M.D. for 13 years. We decided that there was a need for a walk-in clinic. The option is to go to the ER. We felt that Express Care was necessary and that the clinic would do well in our community,” said Holland.

Accessibility is Everything

Noting in his case study that Express Care employs a Medical Assistant, another NP and a receptionist, Brian said, “We were up and running for nine months and we started looking into getting an Urgent Care EMR system. I looked at several systems, including Practice Velocity and Office Ally, which was a free web-based portal, but it had a lot of glitches in it. The big thing was price because we were a new company just starting out. We really wanted a system that could go 100% paperless. We like that WRS is web-based. I’ve worked on a lot of other systems that weren’t web-based. A lot of times we take things home and we can access WRS from different facilities and locations.”

Holland couldn’t agree more with her husband’s sentiments concerning the convenience of having a web-based system. “It’s been nice with WRS being web-based that we can take work home. You can click on a date and see which patients have been in. The note is there so once he gets home or we have a ballgame with one of our kids or something else is going on, he can just come home and complete it. If you have the Internet, you have access to your EMR. That’s so convenient.  Brian also sees patients at a psychiatric hospital and he’s also able to access WRS from that location.”

Go-To Templates

How can a relatively new Urgent Care practice provide fast service to new and existing patients and still maintain a smooth workflow? For the Harrises the answer is WRS customized templates.

“We’ve structured our business around WRS templates and how it works and how it makes each of us more efficient at our jobs. We offer a weight loss program, so when a weight loss patient comes in, it’s easy to click on a follow up and you have an outline set up in the templates. We also have templates for new patients and for medications for conditions such as hypertension. It makes things easier,” said Holland.

Brian added, “We also have women's well check-up templates set up, such as for pap smears. The system brings up all the icons that you need to check and to document.”

Pointing out in her case study that the providers chart as soon as the patient comes in, Holland said, “Otherwise our physicians would be here until 10 p.m. It’s easier to be able to come in and see the patient and click on established patient or refill medication, which are some of the other templates that we’ve set up.  It’s easier for the provider to go in and click that and it’s mostly prefilled. Of course, the providers may have to go in and change a few things, but that’s just a click of a button. It’s also very convenient for the receptionist. She can click on the patient’s name, check them in, see what room we’ve put the patient in and check them out.”

Billing is a Cinch

Opening a new practice without knowledge of the ins and outs of billing can be a major roadblock to success. “We were new at this. We really liked the fact that WRS Billing Module puts the diagnosis codes on the Assessment and Plan and that it shows you exactly what you can bill out,” said Holland.

Noting in his case study that Express Care utilizes a billing company, Brian said, “WRS web-based system works well because she is in Texarkana and she can access WRS Billing Module from her facility. The module helps with efficiency. We give her the super bills every day.”

WRS Billing Module is also convenient for Express Care’s staff. “WRS has made it accessible for our receptionist to be able to go in and look at a patient statement or look at what was billed out and what was written off or if a claim was rejected. It’s been nice that we can access that from here, instead of having to call our billing person every time we need to see if something is still out. You can leave comments under the billing.  We had something that was billed out under Brian’s name and he wasn’t in network and it needed Dr. Nash’s signature so she provided the note that this claim hasn’t been paid and we refiled it.  The biller leaves certain comments in the system, such as, ‘This one needs more information.’ When an insurance company rejects a claim and tells us that we have to send the medical record, we can scan the medical record in, upload it and fax it from the EMR, which is very convenient,” said Holland.

On the Right Track

Keeping track of patients’ copays, authorizations and insurance eligibility can be a triple whammy. “WRS will show you an authorization, it states what the patient’s copay is and it checks their eligibility, which saves time for the front desk. We really like that part of the system,” said Holland.

On Speed Dial

These days, patients don’t want a doctor’s visit to be an all day affair. The same holds true for their visit to the pharmacy. “With WRS Urgent Care EMR being web-based, we can take our laptops into the rooms so that the physician can enter the note right there in front of the patient, click the Rx, and e-scribe.  So now you are saving time. The physician doesn’t have to write out a prescription. We just plug it in and send it. It saves the patient time because they don’t have to go and drop their Rx off. They can just go pick it up. This benefits the patient because they don’t have to go and stand in line and wait to drop off the medicine. It cuts two trips to the pharmacy to one trip,” said Holland.

“Efficiency is the biggest thing,” agreed Brian, adding, “A lot of times when the patients are in the room, I already have the Rx sent to the pharmacy. That makes for a lot quicker visit instead of having to sit there and write out two or three prescriptions. I can do two or three Rxs and hit send and it’s at the pharmacy.”

Pointing out that many patients come to the practice from smaller towns in the area, Holland explained that WRS system helps to locate patients’ pharmacies. “When you are sending in their Rxs it’s nice to be able to just enter their zip code and it will pull up all the pharmacies. Once you enter the pharmacy and save it as their pharmacy you can click on the pharmacy name and it will give you the fax number. We have to fax narcotics and controlled substances. Instead of having to get online and try to locate the phone number, it’s all within WRS EMR.”

More Organized

Medication management can be a daunting task. “In the note, you can keep track of the medication that has been prescribed, when, what current medications the patient is taking and what you just prescribed. It helps you keep track without having to look back to previous notes,” said Brian.

Holland added, “If a patient is not responding well to their blood pressure medication and the providers change the medication, they can indicate that in a note. A lot of times patients don’t remember what medication they are on. The note says, 'Blood pressure med wasn’t working; if blood pressure continues to stay high, we’ll move it to twice daily.' It’s time consuming to look through a chart. The EMR offers each visit with the date. You can click right on it and it helps you keep track of things more accurately.”

A 100% Paperless Life

Emphasizing in her case study that everyone at Express Care was in favor of going paperless, Holland said, “That was one of the motives of going to an EMR and also being able to keep better track of things.  When you have paper and files, you have to dig for the files and if it’s not filed correctly, you have to find it and then you have to flip through all the paperwork. Some patients have a huge file. With WRS Urget Care EMR you can categorize things like radiology, X-ray and CT scan of the abdomen or brain. You can also put all of your authorizations together. When Brian set it up,  he was able to set up WRS to fit our paperwork.”

Looking Good

A note that is sloppy or unprofessional in appearance can tarnish a practice’s good reputation. “WRS Note is very thorough. Within a few minutes you have a three to four page note on a patient. It looks very good. We do more referring out than patients who are referred to us since we’ve a walk in clinic. It looks very professional when we refer patients out to other providers,” said Brian.

Handled with Care

Learning a new system can be a hand-wringing experience. “When we were setting up the tutorials it was really nice that we were able to call WRS and have somebody walk us through and show us exactly what we needed to do. The WRS Team is great. If we have a problem or need something changed or need help with something, our billing staffer speaks with someone. When she was moving our old billing over to the new billing they spoke with her daily,” said Holland.

Brian concurred. “We haven’t had to send in many e-tickets to request help from WRS for the clinic. At first we did because we weren’t familiar with the system. But for the past year and a half we haven’t had to place any tickets. The majority of tickets have been for the billing department and that was to add insurance companies into the data base. We like that if we do have a problem or we want something added or taken away we just do a ticket and that problem is resolved.”

Money Matters

Shelling out money and wondering when money will come in can cause sleepless nights, especially for a business that is starting out. When it came to purchasing an Urgent Care EMR, the Harris’ found WRS was reasonable. “Price was something we looked at coming into an EMR. Affordability was a key component in our purchase of WRS EMR. Because we were a new business we were trying to cut costs as much as we could,” said Holland.

What about money coming in? “Last year the practice applied for Meaningful Use incentives. We received a check.  It really didn’t take long at all. WRS most definitely helped facilitate that,” said Brian.

Build it and They Will Come

It’s been three years since Express Care opened, and the husband and wife team plan to open a second clinic. “WRS plays a huge factor in our every day system here. It’s very vital that we have it up and going.  We’re looking at putting in another clinic across town. WRS can help if we open this other facility. Some of our patients live closer to the new facility. It is going to be a benefit to them that we don’t have to have them refill paperwork, and upload it and transfer the labs and all the medical records because it is a web- based program. All we will have to do is log in and all their medical records will be there,” said Holland.

An EMR that's Highly Recommended

When queried whether she’d recommend WRS, Holland gave a thumbs up. “We have several friends in surrounding states opening up their practice who want to do basically what we’ve done with our company and we’ve highly recommended WRS for the flexibility of the system, how easy it is to maneuver around it and how affordable it is. WRS is easy for all of the staff to work with and they learned it very quickly.”

In and Out

Acknowledging that the practice plans to stick with its Urgent Care EMR and its motto, Holland said, “When you are sick, you want to be in quick and out. You don’t want to sit in a physician’s room all day. WRS has allowed us to use templates for efficiently checking patients in. If it’s a repeat patient, you just click on the name and you can look in the patient’s account, see if they owe money, see what the copay is and make sure they are eligible for the day and pull them back. It’s easy to look at their previous note and to see the medications they are on. You check them in, put them in a room, the physician can look at their previous note, go in and see them and get them out.  WRS has allowed us to keep our motto intact, “If you’re sick, we’re quick. In and out.”

Friends and Family

Who doesn’t love unwinding after a busy work week? “We love spending time with our kids. Our kids are our life. We like to ride ATVs and we go mudding. We have a six seater. We have a big group of people and we go out and go mudding,” said Holland.

Finally, we couldn’t help but inquire, Does WRS have a positive impact on playtime too? “WRS offers us time away from here to be able to do that. WRS gets us away from the office,” said Holland to conclude the case study.

Urgent Care Testimonial