SpringCharts

As a software reseller and trainer, I am attracted to SpringCharts because I like systems that are intuitive, easy to use, and affordable.

That's why this EHR system is such a great choice for electronic health records (EHR) for the small medical practice.

In fact, McGraw-Hill Higher Education has published a new textbook, Hamilton/Electronic Health Records, to educate medical personnel on these revolutionary systems. As part of this initiative, McGraw-Hill has partnered with Spring Medical Systems, the creator of the SpringCharts(R) EHR system, to provide fully functional demo software to all students, offering a unique hands-on patient care learning experience. The reason....ease of use.

You can view a quick tour of SpringCharts, then contact us for a more complete demonstration and information about discounted pricing.

The success or failure of any electronic health records (EHR) system ultimately revolves around the physician so I asked Dr. Richard Ganz to tell me about his experience with SpringCharts. Dr. Ganz is an Internal Medicine physician and has been practicing in Healdsburg, CA for over 20 years.

The following is my interview with Dr. Ganz.

JANICE: Hi Dr. Ganz. Thanks for talking to me today. How long have you been using SpringCharts?

DR. GANZ: About 5 years.

JANICE: How long did it take you to fully implement the system?

DR. GANZ: About a week.

JANICE: What do you like most about the system?

DR. GANZ: The interoffice messaging.

JANICE: Could you explain that further?

DR. GANZ: Sure. If I am in the exam room with a patient, and I need a form, for example, I can send an instant message to my assistant. She brings me the form and I don't have to leave the exam room. If my assistant receives a request from a patient or a physician, she can send me a message and I can bring up the electronic chart and handle the request immediately. Neither of us have to go searching for files.

SpringCharts saves me time and allows me to run a complex practice with only one assistant.

JANICE: What do you like least about the system?

DR. GANZ: Nothing, it works great for me.

JANICE: Do you chart your notes in the exam room?

DR. GANZ: Yes, I do.

JANICE: How do you enter your notes?

DR. GANZ: I type them while talking to the patient and performing the exam.

JANICE: As I remember, you're a pretty good typist. That's got to be a big advantage.

DR. GANZ: Yes it is. But actually, using voice dictation also works great. With Dragon Naturally Speaking Medical, you can achieve a 95% accuracy rate. I don't use it because I choose not to dictate in front of the patient in the exam room.

JANICE: 95% accuracy. That's a lot better than it was a few years ago.

DR. GANZ: Yes, it's improved a lot.

JANICE: EHR packages all have features like dropdown lists, rapid text, templates, pop-ups, etc., that are designed to speed up the charting process. Some of the more expensive EHR software packages have a lot of medical content and very sophisticated macros with branching logic.

SpringCharts uses pretty simplistic pop-up text features. Do you feel you're missing out not having the more sophisticated features?

DR. GANZ: No I don't.

JANICE: Do you ever take advantage of the pop-up text feature available in SpringCharts?

DR. GANZ: Yes I do. For example, I use it to document my discussion with the patient on prostate health screening.

JANICE: How well does SpringCharts handle labs?

DR. GANZ: Its great. I can download labs to the patients' charts with just one click of a button. It works with Quest and LabCorp. SpringLabs is currently working on a lab interface for Healdsburg Hospital.

JANICE: Naturally you have other documents that need to go into the chart. Do you scan those documents?

DR. GANZ: Yes we do. My assistant scans them and attaches them to the chart.

JANICE: Do you use electronic prescribing?

DR. GANZ: That has been a little slow?

JANICE: How do you mean that? Is the process slow?

DR. GANZ: No, not at all. It's just that I can print or fax the prescription so much faster right from within SpringCharts. The drug interaction of SpringScripts is really good so I am rethinking using it more.

JANICE: How has the overall performance of SpringCharts been? Is it slow or is it buggy?

DR. GANZ: Not at all. It works great.

JANICE: How about the technical support? How has that been?

DR. GANZ: It's been great.

JANICE: Well, thanks for talking to me Dr. Ganz.

DR. GANZ: My pleasure.

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