There's simply no comparison

Overview

Dr. Ian MacPhee is committed to his patients. Every day poses exciting new challenges for his clinic, and it seems like not a day goes by that he and the other four family physicians at the Family Health Group struggle to keep up with the expanding patient workload. Since graduating from Dalhousie University in 2003, Dr. MacPhee has always looked for ways to take advantage of technologies, such as Electronic Medical Records (EMR), to allow him to care for patients in the best possible way.

In fact, Dr. MacPhee shares a bond with a small (but growing!) community of physicians that embraced technology in the name of patient health (and personal productivity). He credits part of his approach to being trained on EMR as a medical student. Since then, he has incorporated EMR technology into his professional medical career. The absence of technology in the medical practice is a rather foreign concept to him.

The challenges

In addition to being previously trained on an EMR as a medical student, Dr. MacPhee has incorporated Electronic Medical Records technology into his daily life since the beginning of his professional medical career. He was with his former provider before there were ever any government incentives available, and is well-versed in the EMR market, having researched and practiced on various providers.

Technology evolves at a rapid pace, and when it was time to upgrade the software on his previous EMR, Dr. MacPhee and his team started running into problems. “We were on a local solution,” he says, “And the costs of maintaining our servers were burdensome, to say the least. The Ontario government eventually established an EMR funding program that would help us cover the mounting costs, and we were due for a software upgrade. We soon realized, however, that our overhead wasn’t our only concern. The transition was not a smooth one, and we had issues moving our data from the old software.” Dr. MacPhee knew he had to make a change. After studying the options before him, he realized he would need to replace his costly local EMR solution with a more effective solution.

In short, it was time to consider a new EMR. Dr. MacPhee and his team narrowed their list of prospects down to two, and Nightingale was among them. The residents who practice at his clinic are already using Nightingale as part of their Family Medicine studies at Western University, and Dr. MacPhee saw a great opportunity. “The kind of investment required for training and implementation—from both a time and cost perspective, of a new EMR is nothing new to me. The fact that our residents had already applied their technical knowledge to Nightingale On Demand proved to be a key factor in our final decision.”

The solution

Over time, the vendor/practice partnership began to evolve. Dr. MacPhee found Nightingale to be more like the physician's ally, always there to offer assistance every step of the way. “The support has been great. If there is ever an issue, which is rare, it’s just a phone call away. And if I need a refresher on a specific task, the online tutorials are a helpful alternative to live support.”

Things have been rather positive for Dr. MacPhee and his team, and the existing NOD knowledge that the residents from Western have has been invaluable. “My residents don’t need training. That’s huge in such a busy practice like hours. They come in, do what’s required of them, and we don’t have to use up our limited free time to show them the ropes.”

Dr. MacPhee may not be new to EMR technology, but Nightingale’s cloud based model has supported his efforts to attain a sense of work, life balance. “I can access patient records from home and on vacation, flawlessly! It’s been a great timesaver. I don’t have a pile of charts to go through at the end of the day, and I get to spend more time with my kids. But I do sneak in a few late night projects every now and then.”

Paper records were never an option

For a physician like Dr. MacPhee, who has incorporated technology since his college years, the idea of paper charting is an archaic one. “Between paper and electronic charts, there’s simply no comparison. Electronic charts are searchable, readable—they leave less room for error. I also get to do my own billing, and charting is an easy and efficient process with simple point and click functionality right at the point of care.” What he also appreciates is that even during high-traffic walk-in clinic hours where electronic charting can be an issue; you can easily scan paper charts into the EMR so patient records always remain secure.

EMR for the future

Dr. MacPhee sees great things happening in the healthcare world as systems become more integrated. “I’d really like to see iPads take off. It’s a great gadget and the portability of the iPad is perfect for busy clinical workflows.”

Dr. MacPhee also sees a healthcare system that mirrors that of our counterpart overseas. “You go to some countries in Europe that have succeeded in creating a synchronized electronic health system where patient data can be aggregated and analyzed for the use of research. For example, wouldn’t it be great if we could find solid statistics on chronic diseases based on patient demographics across a city, province or country? We’ve come a long way, but we definitely have a long way to go.”

Looking to the future

Dr. MacPhee has big plans for his practice, looking to expand his family health group of five physicians. They have a great operation, and it’s obvious that any new physician coming on board would be lucky to join such a forward-looking team.