Accurate Records From ChartWare Give Family Doctor Peace of Mind.

Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers

ROHNERT PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 21, 2004

At 4 o'clock one afternoon recently Ernest Thomas MD, a family doctor in Los Gatos, California, had just seen his 35th and last patient of the day. "All the charts are done," he said. "I'll be home in time for dinner."

Before Thomas installed electronic record keeping seven years ago, he knew only enough about computers to do word processing. Even then he was repeatedly on the phone to Microsoft for help in getting himself out of a corner.

Now, using ChartWare, his records are totally computerized and he can't imagine them being any other way. "In all the time I've used it, it has never once crashed and the only time there are any errors is when I make a booboo." Even then, he says, ChartWare staff have always been on hand to help him get back on track. "They really back up their product and give you the feeling that they care about you and your practice."

Thomas made his choice, after 36 years of doctoring, by trying every piece of electronic medical record software he could find at the American Academy of Family Practice convention. "But I kept coming back, four or five times, to ChartWare," he says. "I was taken by its flexibility and how easy it was to use. I saw nothing else to match it."

Thomas decided that he needed to computerize when he realized that the traditional records he was using probably couldn't stand up to independent scrutiny. "Sometimes I couldn't read my own writing," he recalls. "On top of that, I was paying 15 cents a line for transcription. That's a pretty big check at the end of the day. Now at the end of the day I'm not paying anyone."

He has been audited by Medicare which, he says, is like being interviewed on Sixty Minutes. "Everything was perfect," he reports. "They didn't find a single error."

He credits ChartWare with making his work much easier and quicker. He gives a simple example. "When I enter into the computer that I'm giving a 35 year-old man a physical, the system immediately cuts out all prompts for tests peculiar to women. I don't need to think about those tests any more. But it will remind me to check for prostate problems and will flag it if I forget." For female patients, he gets the same reminders about pelvic examinations.

Similarly, the system prompts him to test blood pressure with the patient standing, sitting and lying down. "It saves me having to think about it." In a day all those prompts add up to a lot of time saved and worry shelved.

More importantly, information is entered while the patient is there. "When did the symptoms start, what makes them better or worse, have they occurred before? And what did I do about it? It all goes in there and then. There's no time to forget details that might prove important later, no additional work to do after the patient has gone and no ambiguities if, at any time in the future, someone needs to check up."

The diagnosis codes also go in at the same time and can be checked against the other data so that not only are they accurate but also that anyone looking at them can confirm they are accurate. "It's a commonplace that most doctors don't keep good records," Thomas points out. "That makes them very vulnerable."

For one part of his work, patients recovering from substance abuse, accuracy is particularly sensitive. "People have relapses and quite often they'll say something like 'I really need some Vicodin, doctor. You've never given it to me before.' But I did give it to them and it's there in the record to prove it."

Thomas was unusually thorough in testing other software before making his choice. Later his judgment was confirmed when Family Practice Management, journal of the AAFP, awarded ChartWare five stars for overall performance, the only software suitable for installations of all sizes to win this prestigious rating.