The most comprehensive online resource for medical practice management
MPT Podcast 9 – The Challenges of Integrating a New Technology into the Medical Practice, with guest Chris Mertens, VP of the Personal Systems Group for Hewlett-Packard.
This Issue:
As medical practices become more advanced, staff members gain improved access to the Internet during work hours. Cyber-slacking is a well-known problem in corporations; in fact, one study found that over thirty-five percent of employees admit to using the Internet for personal surfing at work.
The New York Times cited that twenty-five percent of Net use on work computers isn’t actually work-related. Although it is unknown how severe the problem is in medical practices, the trend continues to grow.
Beyond basic productivity loss, there are other dangers which result from employees abusing the Internet at work. At one company a staff person was fired for visiting adult websites and distributing the content to co-workers. Apart from the potential embarrassment over such an incident, a practice could be liable to sexual harassment lawsuits. But even if your employees use the Internet in a ‘decent’ manner, simply downloading personal data onto a work computer can increase costs for your practice in terms of bandwidth and storage.
So what can you do about it?
Create clear policies for network use. Does your company have a well understood policy regarding Internet use on work computers? And is this tied to a clearly-delineated disciplinary process? These policies should be included in the employee manual. These same policies are great protection for your practice in the instance of a lawsuit. Also, be sure to get acquainted with applicable privacy laws, normally found under the jurisdiction of state laws, since these vary state to state. [see more about privacy issues in MySpace in the Workplace
You should understand your rights and limitations as an employer. If you have doubts about a particular issue, contact a lawyer who specializes in employment law. In general, all the computers that staff use, along with the content, are company property. In the case of legal issues, as in allegations of harassment or discrimination, e-mail correspondence can be subpoenaed.
Make sure you understand your options before deciding to monitor Internet use. There are third-party monitoring software solutions, but the value of this depends on the size of your practice. Keep in mind that monitoring will add both complexity and cost to your day-to-day operations. Although there are free software solutions available for monitoring your network, operation and installation costs could make monitoring more of a hassle than it is worth.
After designing the physical layout of your office network, it’s time to start making some decisions about its logical design. The logical design is basically the 
network’s intangible structure and function. In this month’s article, I’ll provide some guidelines on creating an efficient, flexible and smoothly functioning logical network.
Strive for Flexibility
A good rule of thumb to use when designing is to organize and group by function, and then by geography. This design provides greater flexibility for function and management of your network. For example, if your organization has three locations, it’s desirable to create a logical unit named “Front Desk.” [Read more...]
Even if you haven’t yet made the leap to full electronic medical records (EMR) implementation, chances are you’re already using a computerized system for scheduling, billing, or other administrative functions. 
And unless you only have one computer in the office, it’s likely that the computers are connected by some sort of network.
Should your practice outsource IT (information technology) or hire your own in-house computer specialist? 
Whether you decide to implement an electronic medical records system now or five years down the road, the movement towards a practice management approach that makes more use of advanced technologies is already underway. At root, the practice of medicine is a business like any other, and today’s physicians must be prepared to embrace state-of-the-art tools or face the possibility of being edged out by more tech-savvy competitors.
Getting staff on board may be the most challenging part of technology change, but change management principles can help counter resistance.Electronic medical records systems are designed to make practice management easier. 
By automating, streamlining, and centralizing many of the dozens of administrative tasks staff members must attend to on a daily basis, an EMR system can significantly enhance your staff’s efficiency, freeing them up to focus their efforts on more critical matters.
Say Ah and stand close to your webcam
A Toronto-based company, WebCamMD, says it will offer medical examinations remotely with nothing more than a good internet connection, according to a ZDNet article .
So, if you thought that computer technical assistance by an overseas customer representative was frustrating, be prepared for the shape of things to come in healthcare.
And if you are tired of sitting in your doctor’s waiting room now, remember that the wait for the virtual doctor will still be quite real – although it doesn’t hurt to have a recording that tells you how much longer you have to wait….
Before choosing an EMR system, you need to know some network software basics.
‘Software’ is just another term for a computer program. Today’s software offerings usually break down into one of two broad categories: network/server or application/productivity. Network and server software includes the operating systems that run your servers and network, but also extends to monitoring and management software.
Sometimes, the process of selecting the right software can get pretty complicated, what with licensing, different versions, and all of the other considerations that are involved, so it’s important to understand how everything fits together before you decide which type of program is right for you.
The International Association of Dental and Medical Disciplines (IADMD) is a grass-roots organization whose main focus is to push for industry and legislative changes in the health care system, while at the same time bringing its membership up to date on technology. One initiative is to provide doctors participating in local community health services the tools to track and account for the free services they provide. A recent article in Information Week explains how the IADMD hopes to benefit in several ways from technology awareness; among them increased membership and a larger group to support its lobbying efforts.
