Ignoring Patient Supplements Because of the Hassle?

Technology now makes it easy to prescribe supplements for better patient care and to create a successful new revenue stream M any DCs avoid offering nutritional supplements because it can seem like a time-consuming effort for little reward. But the fact is. prescribing nutritional supplements can pro­vide major health benefits for your patients and your bottom linc—aiid it doesn't have to be a hassle. You just need to have the right technology in place to help. Here are just a few of the concerns about prescribing supple­ments commonly cited by DCs. and how the right EHR/practicc management software can effectively turn them into non-issues. Educating patients on the supplements you prescribe Creating custom educational handouts can seem like a daunting task, particularly because you want ALL the specif­ics—including dosage and frequency—for every supplement you earn to be double- and triple-checked. Depending on which EHR/practicc management software you choose, you may find that your program comes pre-loaded with patient education materials, including nutritional supplement handouts. This makes educating your patients as easy as print­ing out the correct handout for your patient, or prc-printing a stack for jour most commonly used supplements. You may also have the ability to create macros within the software detailing specific instructions and then distribute that information to your patients. Documenting supplement prescriptions and consultation With all of the documenting you already do. adding supple­ments to the mix may seem like it will add even more time to your process. However, not documenting supplements is not even an option in terms of good risk management practices and state board rules on documentation standard of care. Should a liability issue arise, you will need that information at hand. The good news is. documenting nutritional supplements doesn't have to be difficult or time-consuming. The right software will make it easily accessible and will accommodate your workflow. Depending on the software you use. you can customize dozens of macros to allow for the simple point-and-click entry of your most common prescriptions and dosages. With EHR/practicc management software, when you docu­ment a supplement prescription, it becomes part of your pa­tient's record. You and your staff can casih access prescription history in a consolidated patient-specific supplement log or in the encounter-specific note. What happens if a patient loses their information? Your staff can quickly find the instnictions and cither reprint or resend the information via an encrypted email, effectively eliminating the need for patients to catch you between patients to ask. But perhaps the best part is that you and your staff can now send the clinical care summary-including prescription dctails--with encrypted data to the patients Personal Health Record (for instance. Microsoft HcalthVault). That way. patients will have all of their prescriptions, dosage and frequency informa­tion available at the click of a mouse. Side effects and other unintentional reactions Your EHR software should include a component for check­ing drug/drug and drug/allergy interactions and automatically alerting you of potential conflicts. That way you can avoid potential side effects and other unintentional reactions before they even happen. Inventory management EHR/practicc management software can easily automate your supplement inventory, enabling you to set a threshold and receive a notification when it's time to reorder. This not only allows you to provide on-demand nutritional sen ices, but it also helps you avoid excessive shipping charges from continually restocking or ordering one-offs. There's no operational reason that you shouldn't offer nutri­tional supplements to your patients Technology makes it easy for you to provide patient educa­tion, document your prescriptions, avoid unintentional reac­tions, and maintain inventory. Your EHR will help you track all of a patient's prescriptions, dosage, and frequency so all parties can recall what was pre­scribed. Again, you can print the information out and provide it to the patient and send the encn ptcd data right to your patient's Personal Health Record. Managed properly, nutritional supplements can help improve patient care in an efficient, risk management-friendly way--without adding a lot of time and effort. Steven J. Kraus, DC, DIBCN, CCSP, FASA, FICC, is founder and CEO of Future Health, the industry leader in EHR practice management software for Doctors ofC "hiro-practic. He is a recognized expert in Health IT, including EHR (electronic health records) and the up-to-$44,000 ARR.4 incentive pro­gram to implement EHR. Under Dr. Kraus' direction, hundreds of Future Health DCs qualified for the 2011 ARlt-l incentive. In fact, more DCs collected incentive money using Future Health than any other software. Dr. Kraus is also an expert on practice management, with more than 23 years of experience in his own practice. He has developed and sold 18 practices and has provided strategic consulting to more than 400 healthcare businesses nationwide. For more information and to sign up for a free software demo, visit www.FHeConnect.com 1074.