Consider why KIP Deluxe Should Be Your Office Management Software

KIP Deluxe is the best way to manage your office electronically. More than just another way to process claims, this powerful system connects you to a full range of information -- the information you need to run your business as efficiently and productively as possible. And at the same time, KIP allows you to better serve your patients.

Consider its power. With KIP Deluxe you can...

• Store patient records, correspondence, and lab results

• Use voice recognition technology

• Maintain inventory and purchase orders

• Enter unlimited patients, doctors, and locations

• Automate op reports, letter writing, and patient recalls

• View your practice data using easy-to-understand graphs and reports

• Schedule appointments for multiple doctors or treatment rooms

Consider its ease. With KIP Deluxe you can...

• Train anyone to use the computer in a matter of minutes

• Search, print, or recall information easily

• Use the same forms and stationery your pegboard system uses

• Dial phone numbers for patients and insurance carriers automatically

• Find the answers to most every question instantly on-line

Consider its price. With KIP Deluxe you can...

• Purchase a practice management system and a computer system for what others charge for software alone

• Use advanced features such as scheduling, word processing, or charting without paying extra charges

• Benefit from the continuous improvements and new features without ever paying an upgrade fee on top of your support

• Use our support services toll free

Who are we?

We are Knowledge is Power, Inc. (also known as KIP). Knowledge is Power, Inc. was first formed in 1989. We were one of the first to bring the price of power computing within reason. Over the years, we have learned a lot about your business, and your needs. We applied this knowledge to make the best system even better. The result: today's KIP Deluxe is more than just an efficient way to move claims. It's a solution so powerful that it will forever change your view of computing.

How to fight the increasing demands for more accurate medical records

By Dr. David J. Schlam

I have heard that in the past eight years, paperwork for the medical office has increased twenty times. Given what I have seen and experienced, I would tend to believe this is absolutely true.

I have seen more offices in disarray than ever before.

Poor charting, poor scheduling systems, and poor financial management are running rampant throughout the medical community and it seems that matters are getting worse.

As you already know, today we live in a litigious environment. Our only protection from those hungry lawyers is more accurate and complete medical records.

And so the best place to start is with:

Charting

More doctors are being sued than ever before. Malpractice insurance continues to rise. Our only protection is accurate, complete, and legible notes - but who has time to keep more accurate records when you are busier than ever before?

What ends up happening is sad. You end up defending yourself before a judge and jury and if your records are sloppy, incomplete, and illegible, you are defeated - both financially and emotionally.

If you are thinking your malpractice insurance should cover it, I have bad news for you. Judgements today are exceeding your malpractice insurance coverage. I have heard of judgements for the most ridiculous cases exceeding $1.6 million - and if you are the one with $1 million coverage, that’s $600,000 out of your own pocket. Not so bad? It could happen to you twice this year.

So what are you supposed to do? There isn’t enough time in the day to accomplish what you have to do now - and the world is demanding more of you.

Well, you do have a couple of choices, some better than others.

Dictation

Dictating your notes and having a typist transcribe them into your patients’ records is a great way to go. It is fast, easy, and simple. You don’t need a degree in electrical engineering to use a micro cassette recorder. You notes are then legible and more complete because you can ramble on effortlessly.

As you get more accustomed to it, it does become easier.

By dictating, you are able to put patient’s comments and complaints into the medical record and this will truly come in handy when a lawsuit ensues.

But dictation is relatively expensive. Transcriptionists charge by the page or even the word and dictating lengthy patient notes for a primary care provider becomes cost prohibitive.

How can you afford a transcriptionist when managed care plans are beginning to cut into your revenues?

That’s where alternative dictation methods can help.

Computerized Dictation Systems

Computerized dictation systems try to automate the medical record typing and retrieval process. By computerizing your records, you reduce or eliminate the need for a specialized transcriptionist to type your patient charts. You also virtually eliminate the time required to retrieve patient records no matter how old they are.

The SOAP Notes charting feature in KIP Software can store frequently used notes for common types of patient visits. There is no limit to how long these notes can be. So now a patient note, once typed in, can be recalled from within a patient record with a simple click. This eliminates typing errors and saves time in typing.

Many phrases or notes can be clicked on to build a longer note as well. The notes can be edited at any time so that they can be modified to suit the individual patient.

For example, you see a patient for a routine physical exam. Everything is normal but the patient has an allergy to penicillin. So you recall the note for normal exam and just add "penicillin allergy" to the note and click SAVE.

The note is stored into the patient’s record. You no longer need to print the note until needed. Claims can also be generated from the patient note so you can reduce the amount of work even further.

Notes can be reviewed at any time and can even be faxed to the appropriate persons directly from the computer.

You have now developed a more complete chart, a more legible chart, and a chart that can’t get lost.

I have spoken to doctors using computerized dictation systems that have been tested in the courtroom scenario and they relate that the notes have held up to legal scrutiny.

Computerized Voice Dictation

Computerized voice dictation acts a your personal typist. Your spoken word is transcribed by a computer rather than by a typist.

This system requires a little more tender loving care. Systems today still need to be trained to your voice and this takes time and patience. You also need to learn the software’s voice commands to erase mistakes and create new paragraphs.

I have seen some people make this type of dictation system work very well. You can even use systems such as Dragon’s Naturally Speaking Deluxe to dictate your notes directly into each patient record into our computer system.

This seems like the perfect solution to your dictation problems but it is technically difficult to get working. The system does not work with every sound card or every computer. The computer types every word including every "Uh" you say. And it is not portable like a micro cassette recorder.

Scheduling Systems

With increasing demands on you and your staff, computerized scheduling makes perfect sense. You are seeing more patients in your practice and are getting paid less for each patient. Efficiency becomes your most important goal.

By computerizing your appointment schedule, you have immediate access to every scheduled appointment. Patients will call your office wondering when their next appointment is scheduled. Computerized scheduling can answer this question in an instant and your staff is free to move on to the next pressing item.

This saves you money in additional office personnel, too.

Appointments can be searched by patient, doctor, location, or date. Missed appointments are no longer lost forever.

Patients who miss post-op visits or re-vaccination visits can be reminded numerous times to reschedule. Our software keeps a computerized record of every attempt made to reschedule the appointment. These reminders can be telephone calls, post cards, or letters, which can even be specific to the patient’s medical condition describing why it is important to honor their scheduled appointment.

This looks very good in a court of law.

Computerizing Financial Management

In today’s modern age, it is amazing that I still see so many medical practices in financial disarray. Receivables remain out of control. Patient billing is poor and unclear. Insurance claims rarely get followed up with any consistency.

Most of these offices have computer systems. Many of the offices today are using out-dated computer systems totally unprepared for the present let alone the future. Many are not Year 2000 Compliant.

What disturbs me the most is the lack of motivation by the medical practitioner to take steps to solve the problem.

The way to manage this battle is to make your staff more productive using software designed for today’s environment of healthcare financial management.

Too many physicians see computerization as the enemy. What’s really happening here is that the rest of the world has computerized and those who wait to step in or upgrade just fall further behind.

Each claim requires more documentation then ever before. Each carrier, employer, and insurance plan has specific requirements that must be met to submit a claim. No longer is it possible to memorize these requirements. There are more carriers and more insurance plans than ever before. Most of these tasks need to be automated.

We have had to address these very specific problems in developing KIP Software. We use automation to reduce the amount of labor required to submit claims and to follow up late payments. The situation is manageable with software designed for this specific need.

And in today’s medical practice this is a requirement.

Take the First Step

You don’t have to tell me how hard it is to change things.

Your staff moans when they hear you are getting a new computer system. But when you get right down to it, they will admit:

• Medicare has changed the HCFA form requirements again and your current software company can’t tell you when the next upgrade is coming out (if ever)

• The computer system runs too slow

• Your are running out of memory on your computer

• You can’t find out who had what and when

• They are tired of passing the appointment schedule around the office

• Your current software company has folded (gone bankrupt, been bought out)

• Your current software runs using DOS while Microsoft just announced Windows 2000

• Your staff spends too much time searching for misplaced charts, lab reports, ledger cards

• They spend too much time responding to lawyers requests for medical records

• The office is so short handed they sometimes have to take the phone off the hook

• Unemployment is so low you just can’t get good help anymore (at any price)

• The billing service is charging way too much (and for what?)

• It takes too long to get paid from the insurance carriers and patients

• Our computer system is going to blow up on January 1, 2000

What this list represents is the ever-increasing demand for modernization of your office. With each day that passes, another item is added to this list.

Stop letting your office run you. Take control today.

Dr. Schlam is the president of Knowledge is Power, Inc. and the developer of KIP Deluxe Medical Office Software. Dr. Schlam has been developing medical office software and has been advising physicians on practice management and efficiency since 1989. KIP Deluxe Medical Software is currently being used by physicians throughout the United States as well as in Canada and Bermuda.