Greenway Medical Technologies, Carrollton, Ga., has been rated by its customers for both physician practice charting and practice management software in the latest KLAS report, the 2010 Mid-Term Performance Review: Software and Professional Services.
Greenway's flagship health record, PrimeSuite Chart, received ratings from responders in KLAS’ Ambulatory EMR market segments, earning an overall score of 90.59% among solo practices and 89.46% among practices with six to 25 physicians, scores that KLAS identifies as six or more points above the average for these market segments. Greenway views these results as a confirmation of the software's versatility and to the company's commitment to working as hard for the solo practice as for larger physician groups, says Eric Grunden, Greenway's vice president of client services.
Having the KLAS results broken down by specific practice sizes is extremely helpful for physicians who are looking for new or replacement solutions, Grunden adds. “The workflow, amount of staff and the way a patient moves through the practices are very different based on practice size,” he explains. “Physicians have many things to do. They need a product that's flexible and comes pre-loaded with a lot of options.”
Physicians have many things to do. They need a product that's flexible and comes pre-loaded with a lot of options.-Eric Grunden
Greenway's charting solution has 3,600 pre-built templates available, based on more than 30 different specialties. Greenway's client services team assists all customers in choosing the built-in templates that might be used most often, depending on the practice specialty. “An OB/GYN practice will want access to the OB/GYN flow sheets, whereas a cardiologist will want the interfaces to multiple machinery modalities,” he explains. “Physician practices can always modify whatever they choose, but they don't have to re-invent the wheel every time they need something different.”
PrimeSuite Chart's physician encounter page can be customized according to the specific needs of the practice and according to how each individual physician wishes to view the page, Grunden says. “It's a simple interface,” he says. “You don't need an IT department to implement it, and the software doesn't force everyone in a physician group to do things the same way.”
Greenway's PrimeSuite Practice also was included in the KLAS market segment of practice management solutions, scoring 93.13% among solo practice respondents and 92.81% among practices of 6-25 physicians, again scoring six or more points higher than the market segment average. Grunden attributes the marks in this segment to the solution's scalability and deeply customizable features, which allow physicians to manage demographic data, claims status and clinical tracking within today's changing payer/partner market.
“Back in the 1980s and ’90s, physician practice software was mostly about scheduling appointments, sending claims and accepting payments,” Grunden explains. “Now, it's much more complex. Reimbursements are rapidly declining, and keeping demographic data liquid so it can be exchanged with multiple payers and referral hospitals is extremely important now. The emphasis on efficiency is not just about seeing more patients in a day; it's also about making more of that practice management information available to the physicians on the clinical side.”
In the KLAS report, Greenway also received a “Bravo” for proactive customer service, identifying this as Greenway's highest performance indicator above the market segment average. After any new installation, Greenway monitors the client's productive use of the software on a daily or weekly basis for an agreed amount of time, watching for ways the client could adjust the installed software for improved documentation and efficiency. That includes tracking the items required to qualify under meaningful use, Grunden adds.
“If we see anything that could be affecting cash flow, we'll call that customer to see if they are aware of this, and if they think they might want some additional training.”
Greenway provides a single-database, integrated electronic health record solution, practice management software and interoperability solutions to more than 23,000 healthcare providers nationwide in more than 30 specialties and subspecialties. Thus far in 2010, Greenway's solutions have been selected by several Regional Extension Center programs, including those in New York City, New York state, Iowa and Massachusetts.
Healthcare Informatics 2010 September;27(9):43
