Allscripts applications can help medical facilities achieve quick health IT transitions

Due to the many complications that can arise during EMR software, eprescribing or electronic medical billing transitions, many small facilities are continuing to rely on their past pen-and-paper methods despite the increased care health IT services can provide. However, a new EMR application created by Allscripts that works with Windows 7 phones could make the transition to basic EMR easier for many facilities, according to a report by ZDNet.

While the medical professionals at First Choice Home Health and Hospice, a Utah-based healthcare facility, originally considered buying expensive notebooks and tablet computers, they were able to take advantage of the mobile phones their employees already owned through this Allscripts software, and the result was increased efficiency.

"Computers felt like a barrier to the patient," Beau Sorenson, the facility's chief financial officer, told the report. "It didn't feel like a good patient-clinician connection. So we ended up working with Allscripts to find a device that supported the application."

In total, the application helped the facility save more than $500,000 during its first year of operation. Part of the reason this cut was so dramatic was that some of its caregivers were travelling nearly 3,000 miles a year simply to report to work.

In addition, the Allscripts application for Windows Phones has helped the facility reduce travel by 70 percent, and cut the time workers spent doing administrative tasks by nearly 20 percent. As a result, private physicians and small medical facilities across the country could benefit from investing in similar technology.

By working with a consulting firm that also provides services such as Allscripts MyWay and other top-notch EMR software, medical professionals can gain the knowledge they need to select the best available solutions to their facility's operational problems.