NueMD’s Practice Management Solution Helps New Orleans Ophthalmologist Weather the Storm
Background
EyeCare 20/20 is a single ophthalmologist practice with offices in Harahan and Slidell, Louisiana. Dr. Neil Notaroberto established the offices six years ago. The locations serve a total of 5,800 patients, with a support staff of six.
In 2004, Dr. Notaroberto determined that Eye-Care 20/20 needed a new practice management system to address the following concerns:
- The ability to distribute processing capacity away from office computers to free up resources for document and image management;
- Platform independence, to enable Dr. Notaroberto and his staff to run the application on the variety of platforms that his office uses, including Apple and Windows personal computers;
- A low total cost of ownership, with emphasis on a system that allows unlimited users from unlimited locations, and eliminates additional costs related to a server, or fees associated with backups, training, and upgrades;
- The need for more efficient practice operations;
- The need to place mission-critical information off site for disaster management.
After an extensive RFP process, Dr. Notaroberto and his team at EyeCare 20/20 narrowed down the pool of candidates, and ultimately selected NueMD, an Internet-based solution. Unlike EyeCare 20/20’s previous system, which ran on an in-house network, NueMD stores patient data in a secure, remote location, which can be accessed in seconds with a high speed Internet connection from anywhere, at any time. Dr. Notaroberto pointed to NueMD's platform independence and low cost as the primary factors in the selection.
NueMD® Brings Immediate Results
Almost immediately, NueMD® began to address the issues that prompted EyeCare 20/20's RFP process:
- Dr. Notaroberto and his staff were able to convert space previously used for a server to a patient testing room. The increased square footage now produces revenue by allowing patients to be seen faster (thus, more patients/hour).
- Technical support costs associated with EyeCare 20/20's old system were totally eliminated, for an annual savings of $8,500. In addition, annual upkeep and maintenance costs decreased from $1,200 in 2004 to $800 in 2005.
- Collections increased by at least $30,000 from 2004-2005 (With NueMD's automated system, insurance reimbursements were faster and denied claims decreased).
- With the precision analysis of the NueMD system, EyeCare 20/20 was able to audit the practice's patient flow, and increase flow and recall by 25 percent.
The Hurricane of the Century
The benefits of an Internet-based practice management solution were immediately obvious, but the EyeCare 20/20 team had no way to predict how fortuitous it had been to consider the potential for a disaster when choosing NueMD for their practice management system.
“When it comes to planning for disaster management, I guess my hindsight was 20/20,” said Notaroberto. “At the time we were looking at practice management options, we knew it was important to keep our patient records offsite, but we were thinking about the potential for damage from a fire or a theft, not a flood. Now, of course, we are thinking about floods, too.”
In late August 2005, Hurricane Katrina raged through southern Louisiana and several nearby Gulf Coast states. A Category 4 storm, Katrina has been billed one of the most devastating natural disasters in U.S. history, with one of the largest human and economic impacts. Dr. Notaroberto’s practices were located near some of the worst hit areas.
“Our Harahan office is 10 miles from the center of New Orleans and only two miles from the levee of the Mississippi River,” Notaroberto said. “The Slidell office is next to New Orleans East, which was totally obliterated. The flooding was terrible.”
City officials in Harahan and Slidell issued mandatory evacuation orders before the storm hit. Notaroberto and his staff closed both offices, left town and hoped for the best.
Weathering the Storm with NueMD
Despite widespread flooding and destruction across the region, Dr. Notaroberto’s practices escaped with no structural damage. On Sept. 7, 2005, local and national officials permitted residents back into the area. On Sept. 15 – just two-and-a-half weeks after the storm blew through – Dr. Notaroberto and half of his office team (those who did not lose homes in the storm) came back to work and started seeing patients.
“We were up and running from day one, with our data safe and secure on NueMD’s servers, far away from the storm’s path,” said Notaroberto.
In fact, thanks to NueMD, Dr. Notaroberto …
- was the only ophthalmologist in the entire New Orleans metropolitan area seeing patients in September, 2005
- saw more patients for the final two weeks of September and first two weeks of October, 2005, than all of the other EyeMDs in the surrounding area
- was the first physician of any type in his community to start operating in the local surgery center after the hurricane
- carried a full patient and surgical load for the last two weeks of September
But not everyone was so fortunate. “Most of the New Orleans physicians who operated out of one office have moved, retired or are waiting,” said Notaroberto. “About 50 percent of practices have suffered. This was due to a variety of factors, but not having access to patient records was a very important factor.”
Blue Skies Ahead
In the months since Katrina, life has slowly been returning to normal for many of the citizens of Southern Louisiana. Dr. Notaroberto and his team, however, are quick to point out that things are not exactly “normal.” EyeCare 20/20 has continued to absorb patients from other practices, accounting for an increase in patient load of more than 50 percent compared to pre-hurricane numbers.
“The increase in patient load that we saw immediately following the storm has been sustained,” said Notaroberto. “Pre-Katrina, we averaged 21-27 patients daily. Now we average 33-39 daily.” (The statistics are on a full-day basis).
Hurricane Katrina and natural disasters like it that have the potential to wreak havoc are a reminder to the EyeCare 20/20 team and other physicians in private practice that the safety of patient data cannot be taken for granted. While no one can be totally prepared for a massive hurricane, or other disaster, Dr. Notaroberto and his staff have taken steps to make sure that their practice continues to thrive.
“We now have a disaster plan, an employee call list, and an algorithm to follow and we’ve increased our insurance on the business to replace all equipment at replacement value,” said Notaroberto. “But we attribute much of our success to luck, and to the fact that we purchased a practice management solution that is disaster-ready. NueMD has exceeded our expectations both in terms of functionality and its ability to safeguard the data that allows our practice to operate.”
