How to get OSCAR in Alberta

I have been asked a couple of times about how many clinics in Alberta are using OSCAR.

The answer is: about 6 clinics now.  There are also several Optometrists and a growing number of Specialist clinics that are making the switch from Wolf and other EMR's to OSCAR due to a host of frustrations with the proprietary EMR companies.

So how do you get OSCAR installed into your clinic in Alberta?

There are several ways to go about it.

Feel free to email me directly at drjohnf8@gmail.com and I'll get you pointed in the right direction.  Don't worry - it's easy.

One last item:  if you want an e-form made for your clinic (labs, x-ray, a history form, etc.) - just drop me an email.  I have a smart young Engineering Student that would love your business.  He's cheap, reliable and thoughtful.


JF

Alberta Labs and Billings are working perfectly

I have been real world testing OSCAR labs and the billing module for some time now.  A few beta issues were discovered and have been addressed.  The system is now working perfectly and is very reliable and robust.

OSCAR is also evolving, and a rewrite is being done to keep it super modernized.   I am looking forward to seeing some of the cool things hat they come up with.

In day to day practice in the Family Medicine and surgical clinics, OSCAR has helped to reduce admin costs, increase efficiency and it has assisted me with dealing with complex multi system patients and to coordinate and integrate health care services across a broad spectrum.

My income has increased by using OSCAR quite significantly and I am looking forward to leveraging OSCAR to further increase quality and access to care for patients with even further increases to practice income.  

I hear lots of gripes from other Docs regarding their EMR's - but I have no doubt that those gripes would disappear if they switched to OSCAR.  

Alberta Lab Module just about here! Panelling patients - the NEXT BIG THING IN HEALTH CARE!

It looks like the Alberta Labs Module for OSCAR is just about here!

This is exciting news.  OSCAR-Alberta already has the best billing module available in the country.  Combine that with this new Labs module - and you have one kick-ass piece of EMR hardware.

The approval process with Calgary Lab Services just has to clear a last hurdle and we are off to the races!  Immediately, we will be able to act upon a new concept in EMR use called

"panelling".

Panelling allows us to group patients into subsets for analysis.  This allows us to increase the efficiency of delivery of health care in a timely, sensitive and innovative manner.

I know....blah, blah, blah......I sound like just so many of those amazing statements that just say nothing.


But this is different.

Let me explain to you the value of panelling via a world class, open source EMR like OSCAR:


Paneling has allowed me to increase the quality of care for my patients while simultaneously increasingly practice revenue.

Through paneling, I have been able to determine which patients are due for Complete Medicals, which patients are eligible for Complex Care Plans, and which patients are due for certain medication reviews and renewals.

My office is able to recall such patients in order to book them for necessary appointments at appropriate intervals.  Complex Care plans are performed for all eligible practice patients, and these types of appointments are scheduled throughout the year. This allows us to review and optimize patient care for complex multi system patients while increasing practice revenue for providing this service.

Paneling also serves to allows us to determine, for example,  how many diabetic patients we follow, and to determine strategies to optimize care.  This allows us to create multi-patient appointments to familiarize newly diagnosed diabetics with their condition and to talk about the initial approaches to assessment and treatment.  

These panelled groups of patients are able to form discrete cohort groups that support each other through their diagnoses and to optionally subscribe to office-managed email newsgroups for ongoing self-supportive care.  Paneling allows us to match certain groups of diabetics to each other for potential “micro-communities”.  For example, newly diagnosed juvenile diabetics (and their parents) would not be matched to newly diagnosed elderly diabetics.  One particularly successful “micro-community”, for example, is our group of newly diagnosed Philippino diabetics.  These folks love getting to know each other and to get together for “diabetic meal” potlucks, etc. and to share diabetic meal recipes consistent with their culture.

Regular appointment meetings are organized with these various micro-communities, which brings efficiency of assessment and treatment to these groups in addition to increased practice revenue.

The same panelling approach is used to identify groups of patients with other similar disease states like groups of patients with: Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, Sarcoidosis, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Depression, Bereavement, Congestive Heart Failure, Diabetes, etc.

While the diseases make paneling of these patients possible - it is the patients’ similar disease experiences that bring them together in these types of group appointments that turn into micro-communities within the practice.

This community-based approach to creating “micro-communities” within the practice, greatly enhances quality of care and gets appropriate people with similar disease profiles and social circumstances connected.

Brokering such group patient interactions through the assistance of paneling activities increases patient quality of care on several levels, and also increase practice efficiency and revenue.

Paneling also helps us to identify patients at high risk for certain disease states.  For example, we are able to ensure recalls for patients with strong family histories of bowel cancer, renal cell carcinoma, etc.  Patients will schizophrenia and major depression are also regularly “checked on” so that these particularly vulnerable patients do not fall through the cracks in our increasingly chaotic and poorly organized health care system.

OSCAR's open source EMR allows us to harness the power of an open source format to do sophisticated panelling for our patient population.  This is better for patients, for Physicians and for the tax payer!