Dr. Caroline Reich was well aware that the way her company, Women’s Imaging Associates, was transmitting its radiology reports was causing the physician practice partners extra work. But she and her staff didn’t think there was a cost-effective solution to streamline the process.
“Over the past two years, meaningful use has caused most practices to get some kind of electronic medical record system,” Dr. Reich said. “As our practice partners made the change from paper records, we did have a system for importing our reports into their electronic medical records, but it was restricted and very cumbersome. The technologists at the practices could get our reports as electronic documents, but their systems weren’t automated. They had to open each report, rename it, and move it to the right file folder. It was a very time-consuming process that probably took an extra hour a day.”
Since 2009, Women’s Imaging Associates has interpreted more than 200,000 mammograms for OB-GYN offices, multi-specialty clinics and rural hospitals across the country. Considering that, an awkward “solution” that didn’t “solve” anything was particularly frustrating for Dr. Reich.
“When you work for a big teleradiology practice, and you interface with a big hospital, you can afford really expensive connections. But HL7 connections are prohibitively expensive when you’re trying to interface with small practices,” Dr. Reich said. HL7 (Health Level-7) is a set of international standards for transfer of clinical and administrative data between the software applications used by a variety of healthcare providers. Large corporations can afford big ticket solutions because they rush to meet the needs of hospitals that represent big dollar accounts, leaving individual physician practices out in the cold.
Cost Savings
“We thought that we would need an HL7 connection to each of our partner’s offices, which would have been prohibitively expensive,” Dr. Reich said. Then one day she discovered that someone could indeed make the impossible possible.
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Tangible created a solution that makes it cost effective for us to connect electronically. Before we met them, we didn’t realize that there was a solution out there with the option of utilizing a single HL7 connection that works for everyone we send reports to. What they offered was a great cost savings to us.
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Customization
Better yet, Tangible is able to easily manage all of the connections for Dr. Reich and her staff. Here’s how it works: Women’s Imaging Associates transmits radiology reports to the Tangible Solutions data hub through an established connection. Then Tangible Solutions processes and transmits the data to the physician’s EMR system in the proper format. Every office wants something done a little differently, so there is no standard solution for all practices. Having customization capabilities is crucial to meeting the needs of all of Dr. Reich’s physician practice partners.
Determination
Beyond cost savings and flexibility, Dr. Reich says the real difference in working with Tangible is attitude. “The feedback I’ve heard from our physician practice partners has been that Tangible Solutions is superb. They are amazed that Tangible has never balked at meeting their individual needs. Instead of saying, ‘Sorry, this is all we do,’ they say ‘Just tell us what you need. We’ll make this connection work, no matter what.’
“Many people in the tech world tell you, ‘This is what we’ll do for you at this price.’ You say, ‘OK, great.’ But then you get into it, and you find out the parameters they set initially are not really what you need, so you feel like you’ve been a victim of bait and switch. Tangible doesn’t do that. You never hear, ‘Sorry, we didn’t promise you that.’ There’s never any pushback, and their attitude is so refreshing. They are exceptionally easy to work with, and I’m extremely appreciative of that.”
About Dr. Reich
Dr. Caroline Reich Women’s Imaging Associates
Dr. Caroline Reich is the president and founder of Women’s Imaging Associates, which provides subspecialty expertise for the interpretation of 2D and 3D mammography, breast ultrasound, breast MRI, obstetrical and pelvic ultrasound. Dr. Reich is a graduate of Emory University School of Medicine and has been in practice for 21 years.
Tangible Solutions is a premier healthcare solutions provider serving practices of all sizes throughout the US. Our Happe-branded services offer a range of solutions for physician offices, reference labs, state registries, imaging centers and many other healthcare service providers.
Whether the need is to enhance an EMR system with patient engagement functionality, provide interfacing to other providers or registries, or help achieve maximum incentive payments from value-based programs, our staff stands ready to meet your need. Our success and growth is rooted in a deep commitment to providing outstanding customer service and support. That means we work to develop a lasting relationship as your trusted partner, ready to take on the technical challenges you face every day.
