Atlas.md | EMR Software for Concierge Medicine

Posted by: AtlasMD

January 19, 2016

Announcing the Atlas.md EMR Referral Program!

Refer a Friend, Receive a Discount.

Here’s the deal. By now, you know how much we love to share. Whether it’s savings, references or just plain good news, we want to tell you about it. And since us DPC folk tend to think alike we imagine you’re the same way.

Many of you have already told your Direct Care colleagues about the Atlas.md EMR – now we want to say thank you!! Introducing our brand new referral program. Now when you refer someone who signs up for the Atlas.md EMR, we’ll comp you one month toward your own account. In addition, the person you refer will receive a two-month trial period instead of the standard 30 days!

The season of giving might technically be over with, but we’re going to carry our gratitude for your support all the way through 2016.

So, spread the word and save some money! Click here for more details.

Posted by: AtlasMD

January 18, 2016

The Virtual Quality Myth. How DPC Changes the Game.

Quality seems good, right? Quality seems the like thing that we’re all after, right? Well, sort of! When it comes to EMRs, we’re on the right track. While the rest of the EMRs are tripping over themselves to comply with government regulations over quality, we’re able to pursue actual quality medicine above all.

It turns out that what has been a speculation for years (that government regulations distort quality by making overtesting and distortion of informed consent and overmedication – to name a few – a regular part of a doctor’s work day), has been proven to be a pervasive and perverse issue in the medical world, according to PLOS Medicine.

Virtual Quality Doesn’t Promote Health

This phenomenon is so common that it has a name — “virtual quality,” and it relates to the fact that applying rigid standards, regulations and “guidelines” might make sense statistically but they don’t actually apply to patients, and these rigid guidelines can actually produce harmful effects on patients. It seems counterproductive because it is. The whole point of guidelines should be to ensure a positive standard of practice, but the reality is that guidelines and PQRS’s actually reduce patient quality. According to Peter C. Cook, M.D.,

The notion that PQRS promotes quality care rests on the flawed assumption that a bloated federal bureaucracy, CMS, can be nimble enough to produce quality measures that keep up with the rapidly evolving state of scientific evidence. Reality contradicts that assumption. Published reviews in JAMA have determined that ‘most guidelines become outdated after 5 years.’ (Medical Economics)

Return to True Quality Care

And if that wasn’t enough to make you change your mind, consider the study published in PLOS Medicine, Quality Care that Matters, which states that the “current quality measures should be abandoned.” Obviously “quality measures should reflect meaningful health outcomes. Surrogate measures do not satisfy this principle. Clinical trial results are often not attained in the real world, and there should be evidence that quality measures do, in fact, substantially improve health outcomes across various locales and practice settings.”

DPCs Make a Real Difference

While this is bad news for standard medicine, it’s good news to all of the doctors and patients who subscribe to DPC. We believe in actual quality, not virtual quality, and that’s more meaningful to us than “Meaningful Use” could ever be!

When you’re ready to take the next step in starting your DPC practice, take a look at our curriculum to see how you can get started.

Posted by: AtlasMD

January 8, 2016

Proud to Work on Christmas.

It’s Christmas Day, and pretty much everyone you know is spending time with family and friends. They’re opening presents, attending a church service, sledding, and lounging by the fire after another giant meal. But you experience holidays a little differently. You’re hanging with your family and partaking in all the usual holiday traditions, sure. But you’ve had one eye on your phone all day, and not because you’re a social media addict.

You see, as Jack was opening presents he sliced his finger open with the scissors. Rather than spending the rest of the day sitting in the ER and stressing over the money that would have cost, he called you. You met him at your office and stitched him up – in just a few minutes, and for just a few bucks. He left with a big smile on his face; an hour later he sent you a picture of his young son sailing down the hill on his new sled for the very first time. His text said he’d have missed that moment if it weren’t for your quick action and availability.

Across town, Jill was shuffling her family into the car on the way to brunch when she slipped on the ice. Her ankle swelled up in a hurry, but not before she punched in your phone number. After walking her though a verbal questionnaire about her symptoms and the severity of the fall, you were able to determine it was just a sprain and that some Ibuprofen would do the trick. Jill let her husband take over the shuffling, and while kicking her feet up after brunch as you instructed, she and her daughter had a fantastic conversation that might not have happened if Jill had been ultra-mobile as usual.

In the Swinkle home, Grandpa Bob snuck into the pantry and devoured the rest of the jalapeño sausage… which gave him instant heartburn. When he confessed to his thievery, his daughter called you immediately to make sure the heartburn relief pill she planned on giving him wouldn’t interfere with his other medications. You reviewed his chart, did some cross referencing, and advised her to stay away from that particular heartburn relief pill. Instead, you recommended one that wouldn’t interfere with his existing med list – saving him a trip to the hospital later, and possibly even his life.

So yes, you are a teeny bit distracted today. But you’re grateful for the chance to care for your patients. Thankful for their trust. You might get a few calls on Christmas that pull you away from the holiday task at hand, but you wouldn’t have it any other way. They’re family, too. Your patients needed you, and because you truly understand the value of Direct Care, you were there for them today. Today and every day.

Merry Christmas to all you Direct Primary Care warriors. May you be ever reminded of the value you offer your patients, the medical community, and society as a whole.

Posted by: AtlasMD

December 23, 2015

What’s New in the Atlas.md EMR?

This December we’re giving the gift of convenience – for both you and your patients. New features include the ability to store multiple credit cards per patient, the ability to set custom default appointment duration times, new and easy ways to share patient data, and even a new pharmacy user. Here’s a complete rundown of the new features you’ll find in the EMR:

Manage Multiple Credit Cards Per Patient
Now you can add and manage multiple credit cards in your patient’s billing profile. This means you (and they!) can choose which card to use to make payments inside the EMR and through the Patient Access App. Get the details over here.

Introducing the Patient Sharing Central
Need to share some information but don’t want to send the whole chart? We hear you. Sharing is easier than ever with the new Patient Sharing Hub. Share only the information you need via email, download or print. Learn how here.

New Appointment Duration Options
Now you can customize the duration of your appointments. Appointment lengths default to 30 minutes, but you can increase or decrease by 5 minute increments to fit your clinic’s needs. Read more about that and other calendar setting up dates over here.

New Macro Alert! #Demo
Type #demo to fire the new Demographics Macro and easily enter these details for your patient: name, DOB, cell, email and address. Refresh your memory on all available macros over here.

Patient Enrollment Now Available in Spanish
You probably have your enrollment nicely embedded on your website, right? Well now patients who access that enrollment form have the option to do so in Spanish. All the patient has to do is select “Spanish” on the first page. Way to cater to your patients, you Direct Care guru!

Search by Patient DOB
Now you can find patients by entering their DOB in the Atlas.md EMR search field. This is particularly useful if you have partial data for a patient. So enter their birthday in any format you can imagine, and get on with your day.

Search by NDC in Your Dispense History
We’re thinking of you and your many habits here, which is why you can now search your dispense history by NDC. That’s right, your clinic, your EMR, your way. Freshen up on how to get there.

Introducing the “Pharmacist” User Role!
Are you a clinic who either doesn’t want to, or is unable to run your pharmacy in-house? Do you use a third party pharmacist? Do you wish doing so was easier? Now it is. Read all about user types, their roles and costs over here.

Dedicated Recent Activities Page
Introducing a way to review your clinic’s complete recent activities report! Previously a dashboard widget, now you can search for specific date ranges, modules altered and the author of the changes. You’re in charge, and we know it.

Rx Support for Multiple Locations
The Atlas.md EMR goes the extra mile to make sure you’re doing exactly what you mean to do. So when your patient doesn’t belong to the same location as you, we’ll prompt you to confirm which location’s inventory you want to prescribe or dispense from. Simply follow the brief on-screen instructions, and get on with it.

Posted by: AtlasMD

December 15, 2015

Is Your Clinic Holiday-Ready?

The holidays are right around the corner. You know that, right? We’re talking days away. Days.

Even if you completely forgot to send out Christmas cards (no judgement here!), don’t panic — there’s still time to get your DPC practice holiday-ready. Here are three simple ways you can communicate your holiday plan to your patients — keeping them in the loop, and you transparent. When everyone knows what’s going on, everyone wins.

List your holiday hours on your website.
It’s the first place your patients will go to investigate your schedule. So hop on over to your contact page and take a minute or two to update the content. Mentioning something on your blog (if you have one) wouldn’t hurt, either.

Send out an email!
It’s such a simple thing, but your patients will appreciate it more than you know. Doesn’t have to be long, or too terribly eloquent. Just be nice, wish them well this holiday season and be sure to let them know how to reach you if that method has changed from the usual. (If you use the Atlas.md EMR, freshen up on how to send an email from inside the EMR here, or using a third party here.)

Update your voicemail message.
They will call, but you won’t always be able to answer. When that happens, make sure your holiday hours are plainly stated in your voicemail message. Because if for some reason you’ll be unavailable for an extended period of time, your patients won’t waste their time calling, texting, emailing, and calling again.

So, there you go. Won’t take more than a few minutes of your time, and the result is that your patients know you have your stuff together. Oh, and there might still be time for Christmas cards! Shutterfly will even mail them for you…

Posted by: AtlasMD

December 11, 2015