Dinner at Whisques

Tonight I had Dinner at Whisques. Nice restaurant on the West Side of ABQ. They have mesquite grilled steaks and seafood. Website is http://www.whisque.com/Menu.aspx The Kobe Sliders were great. I hear they make a great mojito. Did not try one tonight. Had a fun filled day of teaching customization. The Doctors are fun to work with and you can tell they love their job. You forget how dry it is here compared to Tampa. I wake up with a stuffy nose and dry lips Yuck! Guess you would acclimate after a few months. I really enjoy coming to Albuquerque. Nice people they have a very laid back attitude.

ABQ Bound... Look out Garcia's here I come!!

Headed to Albuquerque New Mexico today! I'm excited! I get to see tall mountains, breath air from 6,000 ft. and eat great southwestern food. Man nice combo that is! Right!.

So I land and get my car from budget. The Bus driver was not talkative at all. She had on a Santa hat and I mentioned "Nice Hat"... Not a word. Hmmm Must be a deaf /mute? Not sure if that is even politically correct to use any more. Woman behind me by 2 minutes says the same thing and same reaction. Not a word. Guess she is tired of hearing "Nice Hat" Must be required to wear it and hates it I guess.... people are so funny.....

So I make the b-line to The Original Garcia's and order some green chili stew, Carne Adovada and fresh tortillas. MMM man what a nice reminder of why I like this town. The green chile stew is awesome and the Carne Adovada is nice tender chunks of slow roasted pork in a red sauce. Great to dip the fresh flour tortillas into the stew and the adovada. The tortillas are big and thick and fresh.

Website has their menu: http://www.garciaskitchen.com/

Worth a stop if you are in ABQ!!

Blog back online

Wanted to let everyone know My blog is back up and online again. Check out my EMR Install map it's still growing.

Here is a nice link to a Christmas greeting.

http://ecard.ashland.edu/2004admission/index.html

Reminds me of all the great times spent in Virginia making snowmen and playing in the snow. No way to do that in Florida. I'm looking forward to a trip to Albuquerque next week to see some snow!

Panera in a Pinch for your corporate training center!

Panera was turned into our corporate training center at my recent visit to a client in Deerfield Beach Florida. This client has such a secure site for their multiple businesses that we could not get an outbound connection to our training server hosted in Cary. We had to go "off Campus" to a Panera and use their free wifi. I think I drank more Lattes that one day than the past 4 months combined.. Thanks to the quick thinking of the office staff we saved the day by relocating to Panera. Yeah!

The Dr was a trooper through the whole process. We secured a training site for the next few days at a Hilton hotel nearby. The training was a success and we are well on our way to getting a nice install at this site in Deefield beach. Favorite hotel to stay at is the Doubletree in Boca Raton. Nice place and great rates for a newly renovated hotel. And you can't beat the free cookies either!

Great Local restaurants...

The Grill on Congress

http://southflorida.metromix.com/restaurants/american/the-grille-on-congress-boca-raton/127577/content

Neighborhood Sports Bar and Grill

http://local.yahoo.com/details?id=14428339

Blue Fin Sushi (Sushi and Thai... YUM!)

http://www.bluefinsushi.com/

A practice that lives up to their name!

I had a great time implementing this practice! Two nurse practitioners at this Family practice are friends from high school and Nursing school. They have a fun office staff and take extra time to make sure each patient gets special attention from the all female staff.

I had to stay in in the next town over and commute 5 miles each day to the site but I also picked up a few new restaurant as well. golden Rule BBQ. A Local Alabama original with great ribs and sauces. Unique history as well.. May need to look at a Florida Franchise... Top O the River Catfish Restaurants. I ate at the Guntersville , AL store. Nice fried pickles... Great seafood! The Hampton Inn in Ft Payne is the only hotel worth staying in at this location. They also had a Ruby Tuesday's and a Steak restaurant.

Golden Rule BBQ - Great Ribs and sauces!

http://www.goldenrulebbq.com/

Top O the River Catfish restaurant in Guntersville, AL. http://www.topotheriverrestaurant.com/gadsden_tour.php

Plant City Florida known for great Strawberries!

My two latest EHR prodigies! These two guys have a nice office in Central Florida. They are in an aggressively growing urban area in Central florida. Nearby Plant City is know for its' Strawberries in the Spring and Tomatoes all year long. They are also home to the Strawberry Festival in February. http://www.flstrawberryfestival.com/ (Check out the Strawberry festival site! Click on the Royalty tab when you get to the site... That's cracking me up with the Royalty tab.. !!)

The city had the parade down our street while we were customizing a few weeks ago. We were shut ins due the the parade going right down our street so we made sure a drug rep brought lunch that day to keep us nourished during the jam session of template production!

the Lead Dr. is no stranger to the Healthmatics EMR from A4. He went through Family practice residency with 3 doctors I took live on Healthmatics 3 years ago in Jacksonville. (Queue the "It's a Small World" music!) This is the fourth client I have had where they all had ties to the Same Residency class from St Vincent's in Jacksonville.

The Dr did the research for the other Dr's and chose Healthmatics. He has been instrumental in securing 3 or 4 customers for us without even owning his own EMR at the time! (He was still a resident at St Vincent's in Jacksonville) The Dr. recently left a large clinic in Central Florida who has been seeing a sudden decrease in their physician staffing due to a rough transition to their EMR. Seems like workflow was not well thought out and customization was not put in place soon enough to allow for a smooth transition. You hate to see that regardless of who the vendor is... Hopefully they get it turned around ... This has been the 4th Physician I have heard who left that clinic to go solo and purchased the EMR I implement.

Both Dr's were quick studies and they have learned to customize and are getting a nice head start while they are building their practice. We already have the LabCorp interface up and going at Go-Live and they just need to set their webpage up to get the Patient portal running. He should have fun over the next few weeks getting all the toys tweaked. The new practice also purchased all the bells and whistles from Midmark with the Spirometer and EKG that can interface to the EMR.

I'm excited for them I always enjoy working for a new start up practice. This is my 4th start up practice to install this year and I have had 10 or 11 start ups in the past year. I have 2 more new start up practices that I was just assigned this week so I'm looking forward to the initial setup of these offices and watching them grow. It's a nice change from the established offices withtheir mountains of patient charts on an intricate chart rack system and years of consistent scanning ahead of you. Nothing better than a new office with no chart rack in site!! Love those offices!!

• Plant City Links:
• http://goflorida.about.com/od/tampawestcoast/a/plantcity.htm
• Parkesdale Farm the best Strawberry Milkshake in the world!!
• http://www.parkesdale.com/
• Record Strawberry Crop!
• http://www.theledger.com/article/20071222/NEWS/712220457/1338/NEWS00
• Winter Strawberry Capital of the world!
• http://stickygooeycreamychewy.blogspot.com/2008/03/strawberry-fields-forever.html

Phreesia Tablets

Wanted to share my experience with the new Phreesia Tablet. I'm doing an EMR go-live this week and the Dr. at this site in Plant City Florida, was contacted via a postcard mailer to try the Phreesia tablets. They are pretty cool Tablets that allow the patient to enter their medical data into a question and answer software. These Tablets are provided free of cost from Phreesia. They are supported by ads that the patient can watch after they are done entering their data. The tablet has a card reader built in. You may be able to see it on the right side of the tablet. They received two identical units that the Dr. configured and set up on his network. They are wireless and come with a wireless router you install in your network and software you place on a PC on your network. That software allows you to review and configure the application on the tablets.

Configuration is setup of the questionnaire which is basic patient history like allergies, past medical, Family History, Demographics, Insurance info, Social History, Medications, Review of systems, and a chief complaint you can pick from a list of most common complaints. Not sure if you can customize any templates or chief complaints. The patient swipes their credit card in the reader and it reads their information and provides a name. (Or they can type the name) Then they are asked for a Date of birth and a pin like the last 4 of your social security number. They are asked gender, demographics, etc. and the interview proceeds with the user touching buttons on the tablet or using a stylus to click through. After the interview the patient is shown an ad from the sponsor of the day. They can skip this ad and then get patient education provided which is linked to the chief complaint they entered earlier. If they had Headaches, it lists patient education on headaches, if they also entered High Blood pressure as an additional complaint, it provides that also. Pretty neat and gives the patient something to do and information to read prior to the visit.

The practice then either prints a PDF of the data or gets a CCR download. This looks like a good first step and is a great idea for practices with no kiosk, patient portal or waiting room kiosk like a Galvanon (which is expensive I hear)

A few draw backs I have noted.

1. The data is in text format and not "codified" so it's not discreet data yet.
2. The patients have had some resistance in using this each visit new and follow up.
3. The patient portion and the MA data entry time is longer than an MA interview while entering data.
4. The Medications do not contain dosages etc for a script.
5. They do not read Driver's Licenses yet.
6. Specific Complaints do not trigger special interviews geared toward those complaints.
7. The data does not interface to an EMR at this time.
8. The only data exchange is via a CCR record which has no standards yet.

Some Benefits

1. It is really cool technology to have!
2. It gets patients in the mode of using a wireless device to enter their own data
3. Easy to use and large buttons are easy on the eyes and on the Grandparents.
4. Lots of data ports on the tablet.
5. Prints off a nice PDF that you can scan in or use for data entry.
6. Second visit is easier since data is retained from each visit.
7. Prompts patients to provide information that they might not feel comfortable writing on a piece of paper.
8. Reduces spelling errors by patients.
9. Reduces reliance on poor penmanship by the patient.
10. Can prompt the patient for specific data needed.
11. Places the burden of data entry on the patient.
12. provides a PDF or CCR that can be loaded into an EMR at some point.
13. Can be used to collect co-pays and payment in a few months.
14. Does not feel guilty asking the patient to pay their portion of the bill or a bill in full.

It's a great first step and I think this company has a great idea they just need to codify it quickly and get it interfaced to an EMR where you can import the ROS, P/E and HPI sections of the note along with History, Demographics and Insurance data to match the power of a Kiosk or patient portal.

All in all it's a neat device and with a few modifications and additions in the software will make a great addition to any waiting room.

LINKS about Phreesia:

http://venturebeat.com/2008/03/06/six-health-20-firms-reinvent-doctor-patient-ties/

http://pharmexec.findpharma.com/pharmexec/E-Marketing/Turning-Patients-onto-Tablet-PCs/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/455791?contextCategoryId=43871

http://www.medicaltabletpc.com/content/view/592/29/

http://forbesontech.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/09/demofall-what-r.html

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Health-Care/WiFi-Devices-Bring-Drug-Firms-Messages-to-Doctors-Waiting-Rooms/