Busy Florida Pediatrics Practice Thrives with Automation from Advanced Data Systems

CCA subsequently turned to ADS and the MedicsEHR system as well, suggesting a “wish list” of features and functionalities based on CCA’s concept for the ideal EHR for pediatrics.

“We have always enjoyed a rewarding relationship with ADS,” explains Donald Scott Featherman, MD, head of the CCA group. Dr. Featherman went on to say, “ADS was eager to work with us to meet our goals. Their support has always been outstanding. When we presented ideas for the MedicsEHR platform, ADS never brushed us off. Quite the opposite...they generally tried to put our ideas right into development. As a result, I don't think other vendors offer the same functionality and pediatric-specific advantages as MedicsEHR for Pediatrics.”

According to Dr. Featherman, both the practice management and EHR systems have significantly stepped up CCA’s workflow and added to its profitability by streamlining clinical documentation and billing, saving time, reducing expenses, and enabling an increase in patient services while continuing to provide high quality care.

Dr. Featherman notes that vaccine support is among ADS’ special features, and is optimized for pediatrics. “Vaccines can be very difficult and time consuming to track, to transmit to immunization registries, and to submit for reimbursement.”

CCA submits its immunization data by way of an interface from MedicsEHR to the Florida SHOTS program, resulting in significant savings in immunization reporting time.

ADS has interfaced with numerous other state and county immunization registries as well.

Dede Perry, CCA’s Practice Administrator remarked, “The integration between the MedicsPM and MedicsEHR works well from the point of scheduling an appointment to submitting the claim to the insurance carrier. ADS offers a variety of options to accommodate any type of medical practice, whether they are looking for just practice management, or EHR, or a combination of the two.”

Only two percent of CCA’s accounts receivable is over 65 days past due which Ms. Perry said can be credited to the variety of reports that are offered through the ADS system to monitor patient accounts.

“Medics FlowText plays well with the DragonTM Naturally Speaking programs. We have the option of either dictating directly, or rapidly entering via keyboard our pertinent clinical findings into an endless series of self-designed encounter templates,” Dr. Featherman said.

The reports available through the MedicsEHR have been able to support CCA in successfully reporting to Medicaid’s Meaningful Use EHR incentives program.

Currently four physicians and six nurses use MedicsEHR while five of CCA’s administrative staff use MedicsPM. "Everyone is extremely happy with the systems’ workflow and ease of use," notes Dr. Featherman. "The technology is very flexible and supports the way we work, rather than making us conform to a rigid IT set up."

In addition, CCA recently implemented the new MedicsPortal allowing patients to access and complete forms in advance of their office visits, and to perform a number of other tasks. Dr. Featherman anticipates MedicsPortal will dramatically simplify the overall guarantor experience while making CCA much more available 24x7x365.

As for ADS, Dr. Featherman added, "Just as important as how well a system runs is how well the system’s vendor responds to an inevitable IT-related bump along the way. ADS’ ongoing customer support is excellent. I clearly recall a few years ago something had come up during the July 4th weekend. We were able to speak to ADS Support to immediately resolve the situation. That was definitely impressive, but not really surprising for ADS.”

“The medical field is changing so rapidly that just keeping up with it is a challenge for any healthcare software system,” said Dr. Featherman. “But for the past ten years, ADS has succeeded in keeping us ahead of the curve and has brought us a range of important new pediatric features, significantly benefitting our practice.”

Dr. Featherman closed by saying, “We would not hesitate to recommend ADS and their Medics Suite to pediatrics practices of any size.”