Dr. Nashed Rashed
The Situation
Pediatrician Dr. Nashed Rashed is convinced that his ABELMed EHR-EMR/PM system significantly helps him to take care of his young patients’ health needs, present and future. He is also happy about the way the system manages the practice on the administrative side.
Dr. Rashed, a pediatrician with special interest in asthma and behavioural issues, established his practice in 1992. Today he sees close to 700 patients a month, ranging in age from newborn to 18 years. A nurse and two administrative staff help him manage the clinic.
The Challenge
Dr. Rashed is using ABELMed software for billing and scheduling since he started the practice. By 2009, after witnessing how other doctors moved to more comprehensive EMR and practice management systems, he realized that his practice could go completely paperless and gain further efficiencies if he did the same.
“Since we implemented ABELMed EMR, the flow of patient information is better now,” he explains. “It’s easier to instantly transfer and handle patient information between the administrative and clinical staff.”
“Paper charts were becoming very difficult to manage and store as my practice grew,” he adds. “My goal was to find an Electronic Medical Record solution that would fit my specific needs, that was affordable and easy to use. As a solo practitioner, I knew that I could not operate without an EMR. To run a successful office, I had to be organized and efficient and streamline not only the clinical but also the business aspects of my practice.”
The Solution
As a long-time customer, choosing ABELMed as his EMR was not a difficult decision, says Dr. Rashed. “It was a natural fit for me and my staff. Not only did I like it, and understand the basics of billing and scheduling, but I knew that ABEL has a record of providing physicians with state-of-the-art solutions and excellent customer support at a competitive price.”
“The best thing about ABELMed,” explains the doctor, “is that all of a patient’s information is stored in one place. No more searching through the office or on someone’s desk for a specific piece of information.” With four workstations located throughout the office, anyone on staff can view past encounter notes, lab results and referral letters from other physicians.
The doctor also says that to gain even further efficiencies in his workflow, he has created his own customized encounter note templates in ABELMed.
“Being a pediatrician, I have very specific charting needs,” he explains. “ABEL’s support staff helped me to develop a few tailor-made templates from scratch. After I got the hang of it, I have created several more template pages on my own. Now I can even develop more for my staff whenever the need arises.”
The Relationship
Dr. Rashed and his staff have clearly embraced ABELMed’s solution.
“Working with ABELMed’s support analysts to deploy and install the system ‘right off the shelf’ was very straightforward with no issues,” he recalls. “It’s a very stable platform with no crashes or bugs that might destroy data or create havoc with any other program running on the computer. Overall it’s very logical and has a common-sense layout.”
Training on the system was intense but rewarding, adds the doctor. “As with anything else that’s new,” he says, “initially we had to learn a lot in terms of completing new encounter entries and other actions. But once we overcame the learning curve, things went very smoothly and it continues that way today. We started with a dedicated in-house ABEL trainer and then, as we became more comfortable with the basics of the system, we moved to the company’s online tutorials. We know that should we need further support down the road, we can count on ABEL to respond quickly. They understand that downtime is inefficient for a medical practice like mine.”
The Results
Dr. Rashed is using all the features and utilities in ABELMed to the fullest including prescription generation modules and lab report capabilities.
He also says that his staff appreciates how the EMR supports a paperless office environment. “They now realize they don’t have to deal with all that paperwork; no more pulling charts, no more putting them back,” he notes.
As for the doctor himself, he says the system has eliminated the confusion that results when paper charts get shuffled among examining rooms. Now, patient records don’t get lost or even misfiled as information flows from nurse to doctor and back to the administrators. “And,” says Dr. Rashed, “when we take on medical students and residents, it’s easier for them to learn about patients from information in the system, and consult with me on a particular case. They also don’t have to struggle to decipher someone’s handwriting, as in the old paper charts, since all notes are in an electronic format.
“Having ABELMed is also nice for me personally,” adds Dr. Rashed. “I don’t see ugly piles of charts stacked on the top of my desk. I can easily access my entire patient database from anywhere, anytime – even at home or at the hospital. I can connect with the system securely, review the latest information and finish up a lot of charting online.”
Overall, Dr. Rashed enjoys many benefits from using ABELMed EHR-EMR/PM. He views it as a management tool that helps him promote better patient outcomes and parent education. He can use his time more efficiently, spending more of it with patients and less on administration. He anticipates continued innovation from ABELMed like MyABEL -- a web-based portal that offers the team a variety of resources to enhance its ABELMed system.
“With MYABEL our clinical and administrative teams can access a library of tutorials for self-paced learning, download the latest ABEL software updates, search for knowledge-base articles, and download user guides and other product documentation. It’s a super way of obtaining information and new enhancements – much better than waiting for CDs to come in the mail.”
With this and other future enhancements, Dr. Rashed looks forward to the growth of the ABELMed system to manage his expanding practice.