How our Digital Practice Runs


Patient Intake The initial patient intake starts in the portal. On our website, there is a link to the patient portal. The portal address can have a name that matches the practice, for instance, our address is greatlakes.digitalbaritrics.net - an easy to use url that allows the patients to feel confident that they are submitting their data to our practice, Great Lakes Weight Loss. In the portal, the patient adds all of his or her medical history, along with referring physician information and demographic data. We have our call center trained in the use of the portal to serve as an assistant to those patients who do not feel comfortable working with the portal. You can even create accounts for call center personnel that provide them with limited access to the BPM that allows them to create and update user accounts for the patients. When the patient shows up for his or her appointment, our coordinator prints out a copy of all of the intake information and puts it in the chart for the surgeon to review. This information is simply a letter template that outputs the intake information in a easy to read fashion. When the surgeon meets with the patient, he can review the letter template quickly with the patient and modify it as needed based on the intake history and physical exam. The surgeon also indicates all of the desired pre-operative evaluations (cardiology, psychiatry, etc.). The coordinator enters this list of evaluations into the BPM and generates a printout for the patient that contains the list, along with instructions for each item to be completed. These instructions frequently include phone numbers and addresses for referring physicians as well as other details to ensure the evaluation is performed properly. The coordinator then enters the modifications indicated by the surgeon into the BPM and prints out a comprehensive initial visit letter, addressed to the patient's referring physicians, frequently before the patient has even left the office building.
Pre-operative workup The pre-operative workup is tracked in detail by the BPM. As each evaluation is completed and received by the practice, it is updated in the BPM. We use an eFax account that sends our practice all of our faxes as attached pdf documents. The coordinator then uploads these pdf documents into the BPM. Patients can check to ensure that we have received their workup items by logging on to the portal and reviewing their workup progress. This feature has decreased our call volume significantly since it prevents the need for the "did you receive my cardiology consultation" phone call. Any phone calls that are received are easily answered by reviewing the workup screen in the BPM, allowing our coordinators to work seamlessly with each other and avoid duplication of efforts. Our coordinators regularly check the "Workup Status" list which shows the progress of all of the pre-operative patients' workup progress, in order of degree of completeness. This allows coordinators to find those patients with one or two items left to complete and push their workup along. When the workup is complete, the surgeon can leaf through the BPM and review the important documents with a single click, rather than thumbing through 100's of pages of documented weight loss to find a four page cardiology consult. After the surgeon signs off on the patient, the coordinator automatically generates a letter for the patient to request pre-authorization for the procedure, complete with a list of all co-morbid conditions and the ICD-9 codes.
The Hospital Stay After finishing the surgery, our surgeons sit down at a computer in the operating room and enter the details of the procedure into the BPM. This process takes approximately 1-2 minutes. After completing the data entry, the BPM then generates a full operative dictation that is printed out and placed int he chart, in addition to uploaded to the hospital EMR system, usually before the patient has been moved over to a stretcher. The dictation contains ICD-9 codes for the co-morbid conditions, streamlining future billing. Each surgeon has created an individual dictation template for each procedure, and in some instances multiple templates for the same procedure (i.e. lap-band templates with and without hiatal hernia repairs). On the day of discharge, the physician assistant updates the discharge information in the BPM (60 seconds) and documents any adverse events that occurred during the hospital stay. A complete discharge summary for the chart and the EMR is then created.
Post-Operative Follow-up Patients are encouraged to complete a "virtual visit" through the portal system one or two days before the follow-up appointment date. Our call center is also trained to recommend the virtual visit to the patient at the time of the appointment reminder. A virtual visit will ask the patient to complete three short forms (5-10 minutes). An update on their status that contains custom created multiple choice questions for the patient (i.e. Are you having any difficulty with heartburn?) An update of their co-morbid conditions, using the SRC co-morbidity grading system An update on the status of their medications In the waiting room, the patients that have completed a recent "virtual visit" through the portal system are provided a printout (via a letter template) of the virtual visit to review for accuracy. Those patients that have not completed a virtual visit are given a form (custom generated for the patient by a letter template) that contains all of the questions asked in a virtual visit. The surgeon then reviews the form with the patient, documents a physical exam in the margin of the form and returns it to the coordinator. The coordinator then updates the BPM, adds a measured weight and a band adjustment, if performed and if any post-operative adverse events have developed, they are documented at this time. The coordinator then generates a complete letter to the patient's referring physician. The letter contains a chart demonstrating the weight loss and a list of all the co-morbid condition improvements, as well as medication profile. The follow-up letter allows for billing of a level-5 visit.
Certification Requirements Certification Requirements become a simple task that requires only a few minutes of time if your data is stored in the BPM. The BPM automatically synchs with the SRC BOLD system, so to sync a patient's data, a single click fo the button will upload the data to the SRC. The generation of a report that includes adverse events, follow-up schedules and other necessary data can be created using the report generator tool. The reports can be printed out, or exported to Microsoft Excel for further modification. Report templates can be saved to streamline the creation of monthly reports. The BPM is the only patient tracking software that not only saves you and your staff time throughout the day, but also meets most, if not all certification requirements.

Patient Intake

The initial patient intake starts in the portal. On our website, there is a link to the patient portal. The portal address can have a name that matches the practice, for instance, our address is greatlakes.digitalbaritrics.net - an easy to use url that allows the patients to feel confident that they are submitting their data to our practice, Great Lakes Weight Loss. In the portal, the patient adds all of his or her medical history, along with referring physician information and demographic data. We have our call center trained in the use of the portal to serve as an assistant to those patients who do not feel comfortable working with the portal. You can even create accounts for call center personnel that provide them with limited access to the BPM that allows them to create and update user accounts for the patients.

When the patient shows up for his or her appointment, our coordinator prints out a copy of all of the intake information and puts it in the chart for the surgeon to review. This information is simply a letter template that outputs the intake information in a easy to read fashion. When the surgeon meets with the patient, he can review the letter template quickly with the patient and modify it as needed based on the intake history and physical exam. The surgeon also indicates all of the desired pre-operative evaluations (cardiology, psychiatry, etc.). The coordinator enters this list of evaluations into the BPM and generates a printout for the patient that contains the list, along with instructions for each item to be completed. These instructions frequently include phone numbers and addresses for referring physicians as well as other details to ensure the evaluation is performed properly. The coordinator then enters the modifications indicated by the surgeon into the BPM and prints out a comprehensive initial visit letter, addressed to the patient's referring physicians, frequently before the patient has even left the office building.

Pre-operative workup

The pre-operative workup is tracked in detail by the BPM. As each evaluation is completed and received by the practice, it is updated in the BPM. We use an eFax account that sends our practice all of our faxes as attached pdf documents. The coordinator then uploads these pdf documents into the BPM. Patients can check to ensure that we have received their workup items by logging on to the portal and reviewing their workup progress. This feature has decreased our call volume significantly since it prevents the need for the "did you receive my cardiology consultation" phone call. Any phone calls that are received are easily answered by reviewing the workup screen in the BPM, allowing our coordinators to work seamlessly with each other and avoid duplication of efforts.

Our coordinators regularly check the "Workup Status" list which shows the progress of all of the pre-operative patients' workup progress, in order of degree of completeness. This allows coordinators to find those patients with one or two items left to complete and push their workup along.

When the workup is complete, the surgeon can leaf through the BPM and review the important documents with a single click, rather than thumbing through 100's of pages of documented weight loss to find a four page cardiology consult. After the surgeon signs off on the patient, the coordinator automatically generates a letter for the patient to request pre-authorization for the procedure, complete with a list of all co-morbid conditions and the ICD-9 codes.

The Hospital Stay

After finishing the surgery, our surgeons sit down at a computer in the operating room and enter the details of the procedure into the BPM. This process takes approximately 1-2 minutes. After completing the data entry, the BPM then generates a full operative dictation that is printed out and placed int he chart, in addition to uploaded to the hospital EMR system, usually before the patient has been moved over to a stretcher. The dictation contains ICD-9 codes for the co-morbid conditions, streamlining future billing. Each surgeon has created an individual dictation template for each procedure, and in some instances multiple templates for the same procedure (i.e. lap-band templates with and without hiatal hernia repairs).

On the day of discharge, the physician assistant updates the discharge information in the BPM (60 seconds) and documents any adverse events that occurred during the hospital stay. A complete discharge summary for the chart and the EMR is then created.

Post-Operative Follow-up

Patients are encouraged to complete a "virtual visit" through the portal system one or two days before the follow-up appointment date. Our call center is also trained to recommend the virtual visit to the patient at the time of the appointment reminder. A virtual visit will ask the patient to complete three short forms (5-10 minutes).

An update on their status that contains custom created multiple choice questions for the patient (i.e. Are you having any difficulty with heartburn?)
An update of their co-morbid conditions, using the SRC co-morbidity grading system
An update on the status of their medications

In the waiting room, the patients that have completed a recent "virtual visit" through the portal system are provided a printout (via a letter template) of the virtual visit to review for accuracy. Those patients that have not completed a virtual visit are given a form (custom generated for the patient by a letter template) that contains all of the questions asked in a virtual visit.

The surgeon then reviews the form with the patient, documents a physical exam in the margin of the form and returns it to the coordinator. The coordinator then updates the BPM, adds a measured weight and a band adjustment, if performed and if any post-operative adverse events have developed, they are documented at this time. The coordinator then generates a complete letter to the patient's referring physician. The letter contains a chart demonstrating the weight loss and a list of all the co-morbid condition improvements, as well as medication profile. The follow-up letter allows for billing of a level-5 visit.

Certification Requirements

Certification Requirements become a simple task that requires only a few minutes of time if your data is stored in the BPM. The BPM automatically synchs with the SRC BOLD system, so to sync a patient's data, a single click fo the button will upload the data to the SRC.

The generation of a report that includes adverse events, follow-up schedules and other necessary data can be created using the report generator tool. The reports can be printed out, or exported to Microsoft Excel for further modification. Report templates can be saved to streamline the creation of monthly reports.

The BPM is the only patient tracking software that not only saves you and your staff time throughout the day, but also meets most, if not all certification requirements.