MedInformatix Support Staff's Availability, Willingness to Customize RIS Systems Cements Growing Relationship With Northeast Radiology

LOS ANGELES, July 15 /PRNewswire/ -- When Northeast Radiology replaced its three-year-old information system in 2004 with MedInformatix' Radiology Information System (RIS), it wasn't immediately smooth sailing for radiologists, technicians and support personnel at the five-location, Brewster, N.Y.-headquartered group of medical imaging centers.  Though on the surface it would require the most minor of adjustments, the highly intuitive RIS system's mouse-based commands were foreign to Northeast Radiology staff members, comfortable with the company's prior keyboard-based system.

Since then, The MedInformatix RIS system's all-encompassing functionality, combined with the product's California- and Ohio-based support team's responsiveness, has cultivated a mutually strong vendor-customer bond whereby Northeast Radiology has captured developers' ears with respect to future system enhancements.

"The MedInformatix RIS system is mission-critical within our organization," stated Hal Clark, Northeast Radiology's COO/CFO. "Our organization has always utilized the most-advanced, highest resolution imaging systems in state-of-the-art facilities. Our reliance on the RIS system, in tandem with the (Nuance Healthcare's) PowerScribe speech recognition system, underscores our organization's overall commitment to quality—from patient care to operations.

"Sometimes it seemed that every time I turned around, some piece of our technology (infrastructure) was going bump in the night," Clark continued. "I wish all systems were as reliable as MedInformatix RIS."

Data reliability, with regard to billing, scheduling, insurance payments and doctors' reports, to cite a few key RIS system functions at Northeast Radiology, is sacrosanct. On the billing side, for Northeast Radiology's patients as well as for those referred by hospitals in the organization's New York and Connecticut marketing areas, numbers must match. The system in place prior to MedInformatix RIS didn't always deliver in that respect.

"The accuracy of electronic medical records, in addition to the ancillary functions of an RIS system, to put it politely is a big deal," Clark said, a point on which Kim Jones, Northeast Radiology's billing manager, readily agreed. "MedInformatix's support team is fully accommodating to 'out-of-the-realm' requests and arrangements. For example, we're working with them on the development of a RIS interface required for the transmission and storage of text reports for electronic medical record systems with referring offices under the HL7 standards."

Health Level 7, or HL7, is a non-profit organization dedicated to the development of flexible standards, guidelines and methodologies by which computer systems—used for everything from billing records to patient tracking—can communicate with each other across hospitals and other healthcare provider organizations.

"The RIS system is a highly reliable system that addresses all aspects of our organization's operations," Jones said. "But from my standpoint, what's most important in our relationship with MedInformatix's support team is that when we go to them with the problem, the never say, 'We can't do it.' It might turn out that they can't add functionality in a particular area, but they will attempt to and, at the very least, keep a log for its possible inclusion in RIS' next version.

"We're looking forward to Version 7," Jones said.

About MedInformatix:

MedInformatix, Inc. (www.medinformatix.com) is a leading national provider of fully integrated Electronic Health Records. The products have been built around MedInformatix 25 years of workflow expertise. MedInformatix suites of products are designed on a single database using Microsoft SQL. Whether the client is a single physician who went live in 1994, a 13-location cardiology practice, the busiest radiology practice in Manhattan, or one of 15 other specialties it services, MedInformatix accommodates their needs. See why so many practices from various specialties choose MedInformatix. With 13 Microsoft nominations in 8 years, MedInformatix can turn the dream of a paperless, integrated practice into a reality.

SOURCE MedInformatix