RE: MacFriendly EMRs,-how to find people o n the list serv

[Guest guest]

Walter Love and Meg web run Welford charts notes on a MAc I am pretty sure

Do people know that when smart folks like say things like larry

Lindeman does this and Larry Lyon does that , that the way to talk to such

folks is --on the web site for Practiceimprovment1 you go to the left to

members. Once you find them(which can be a bit tricky There are three

columns and the email can be something clever like akifox who is really

gary but on the second or third column you can often tell who it really is)

then you can clikc on that and send a message to just that person?)

and do you all know that if in your FREE TIME you should cklick on files and

read some of the good stuff inthere?

also click on photos...

in your free time..

iginal Message-----

From: Seto

To:

Sent: 1/4/2008 3:52 AM

Subject: Re: MacFriendly EMRs, Vaccine ?s

Chrissie,

Welcome to the group! Sorry for the delayed response but there have been

a ton of new posts that pushed your message way back. What's up with all

these posts?! Don't you guys have patients to see or something?

I use 2 Macs in my solo practice:

1. MacBook on which I run my EMR (SpringCharts), schedule (iCal),

e-mail, e-prescribing (RelayHealth), create and generate forms

2. Mac Mini which runs my practice management program (MacPractice) with

which I do e-billing. I also receives faxes, scans. This computer is

used mainly by my part-time biller, but before I hired her, I did

everything on my laptop.

I looked at the demos for MacPractice's EMR and while I like the idea of

an integrated EMR/PM system, it is basically still a beta program that

is in the midst of development. They were asking for $2500 if you bought

it before 12/31/07, and they said it would be at least $3500 after that.

Personally, I thought that was more that I wanted to pay for something

that is still so rough around the edges. I will keep using my paid for

SpringCharts, which does the basics of what I need it to do, although I

really really wish it had a disease registry function. The

MacPractice-iPhone thing is kind of neat, but I think the actual

implementation of it would be really slow. Plus I would rather have an

iPhone without an EMR first before paying for a replacement EMR.

If you want an EMR on an iPhone, LifeRecord claims to be the first and

only EMR that runs on an iPhone. Only $9999.99! It appears even more

underdeveloped than the MacPractice EMR. I think the idea of an EMR on

an iPhone-sized screen is basically a bad idea.

Other EMRs for Macs include PowerMed (Larry Lindeman and Anemaria Lutas

use this), ComChart, AltaPoint and CottageMed. Someone from MedPlexus

claims it will run on a Mac, but it is totally unsupported. I am

supposed to arrange a demo. Marius Laumans is running SOAPware on his

Mac using VMWare to emulate a Windows PC. I think another option would

be AmazingCharts running on the Parallels virtualization program.

I do buy and administer all the usual childhood and adult vaccines

except for Zostavax, just because I couldn't figure out how to get paid

for it. It definitely can get pretty expensive buying all these

vaccines. I buy the smallest amount I need and so far have not had to

waste too much unused product before it has expired. I figured if I was

going to do well child care to grow my pediatric population, I really

needed to be able to give vaccines and am willing to take a small loss

on some vaccines in order to attract this segment. In Southern

California, many pharmacies advertise that they give vaccines for flu,

Pneumovax, Zostavax but I don't know about their ability to order other

vaccines. I do know that if you decide to order vaccines yourself, they

are usually cheaper if you can order directly from the vaccine

manufacturer if you can.

And forget about those combo mini-fridges that have the freezer section

inside. I found that for vaccines that require freezing, eg. Varicella,

you need to get a dedicated mini-freezer to maintain constant

temperature. On the plus side, I've gotten really good at giving shots.

Best of luck!

Seto

South Pasadena, CA

Hello, all.

I am a newcomer to the group. My med-peds

" nanopractice " opens in early February in Portland,

OR. I am excited about leaving the fold and doing

things in away more consistent with my values.

Using a Mac is important to me, and I am thinking

about MacPractice MD. Do any of you have experience

with that EMR? It recently added iPhone capability so

the whole EMR is available any time, any where.

I am also struggling with vaccine choices. Considering

rx for vaccine to be picked up at pharmacy and

administered in office, avoiding the purchasing piece.

Has anyone tried that? What else are folks doing,

especially in Oregon?

Thanks for any advice!

Chrissie Ott, MD

.... after the last no there is a yes, and it is on that yes that the

rest of the world depends...