TAMPA, FL--(Marketwire - Jun 7, 2011) - Sage Healthcare Division announced today that Spring Hill Primary Care, a multispecialty practice in South Charleston, West Virginia, will implement the Sage Intergy Meaningful Use Edition to meet federal meaningful use requirements, improve the practice's financial process, and streamline the clinic's overall business efficiency from patient intake to billing.
Valerie Porter, business manager for Spring Hill Primary Care, said the improved clinical efficiency also will address patient care concerns including providing better follow-up of care and helping patients move through the system more easily.
But perhaps most importantly to Porter is that the Sage Intergy EHR will provide the clinic with much more capability to assess whether procedures, labs and medications are covered through a patient's specific coverage plan.
"Claims will be much more efficient; payors' claims will be handled ahead of time before the patient has left the practice," said Porter. "We'll be able to educate patients about what is covered, and better work through any coordination of benefits. We can educate the patients even before they come in."
Moving from paper to electronic records means staff time saved, too, which she says is showing itself in a tangible manner. The call electronic tree built into the Sage Intergy Meaningful Use Edition will save clinic staff several hours each day versus having to manually dial patients prior to their appointments, and positions within the records room have been and will be reduced, saving the clinic even more resources to focus on care.
But having an electronic health record (EHR) doesn't mean physicians and other providers will have to work harder to continue building the business; rather, they'll work smarter, Porter said. "Just because we have an EHR, and are doing away with paper, doesn't mean we want to work harder by adding more patients to capture more claims. We want to work smarter and make the successful business model we currently employ even more efficient," she said.
"We want the physicians here not to have to worry about running a business, but to practice medicine. The Sage Intergy EHR will help me focus on the business of medicine while our providers can focus on practicing medicine," Porter said.
In practice since 1996, Spring Hill Primary Care hosts about 35,000 patient visits a year.
From a clinical perspective, Spring Hill Primary Care chose the Sage Intergy Meaningful Use Edition because the system most closely matched paper charts -- what physicians see in the EHR they saw on paper, so the transition should be straightforward, Porter said.
"It is the most user-friendly system we saw from a provider perspective," she said.
Additionally, the physicians in the practice expect to do away with human error in the charting process, and won't have to hunt for records, as was sometimes the case with paper.
The Sage Intergy Meaningful Use Edition will help physicians improve quality of patient care and chart documentation; improve coding; reduce patient wait times; help create more efficient compliance with and reporting of outcome indicators for federal, state and regulatory agencies; as well as reduce and eliminate inaccessible results and charts for the clinic.
The Sage system offers one of the most comprehensive analytics and reporting tools in the healthcare market, and allows for seamless transactions through Sage Transaction Services, as well as integration with the Sage Practice Portal, which provides secure Web access for physicians and their patients to communicate about care.
Sage has one of the largest U.S. physician practice footprints among software solution providers in the market, providing ambulatory healthcare systems for 30 years, serving more than 400,000 healthcare professionals including 80,000 physicians in the United States. Each year, Sage clinical physician partners accommodate more than 133 million patient visits in their practices.
"Spring Hill Primary Care had a desire to improve its business and clinical efficiency, while providing a better managed patient experience," said Betty Otter-Nickerson, president of Sage Healthcare Division. "With the Sage Intergy EHR, the clinic was able to accomplish all of these goals in one solution, a front to back business approach for better outcomes from a business and clinical perspective."
Sage was recently named a top EHR vendor for multispecialty clinics by Black Book Ranking, an international research firm, based on the "highest scores in customer experience in the areas of Document Management, Practice Administration and Revenue Cycle Management, E-Prescribing and Accessibility."
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About Spring Hill Primary Care
Located in South Charleston, West Virginia, Spring Hill Primary Care is multi-specialty, multi-provider practice including family practice, internal medicine and pediatrics, serving more than 35,000 patients visits annually.
About Sage Healthcare Division
Sage Healthcare Division provides integrated electronic health records, EDI applications and practice management systems to approximately 80,000 physicians and thousands of ambulatory care practices throughout North America. These systems enable physicians and practice managers to better manage their practices and improve quality of care. Sage Healthcare Division is based in Tampa, Fla., and is a division of Sage North America. For more information, please visit www.sagehealth.com or call (877) 932-6301. Follow Sage Healthcare Division on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/SageHealthcare, and Twitter, http://twitter.com/#!/sagehealthcare.
About Sage North America
Sage North America is part of The Sage Group plc, a leading global supplier of business management software and related products and services, principally for small to medium-sized businesses. Sage North America employs 3,900 people and supports more than 3 million small and midsized business customers. Formed in 1981, Sage was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1989. Sage has more than 6 million customers and 13,600 employees worldwide. We operate in over 24 countries covering the UK, Europe, North America, South Africa, Australia, India and China. For more information, please visit the website at www.sagenorthamerica.com. Follow Sage North America on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/SageNorthAmerica, and Twitter, http://twitter.com/#!/sagenamerica.
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