Mich. doctors find paper still works best

An anesthesiology group tested handheld devices to track billing but found the paperless system created more clerical work for the physicians.

By Tyler Chin, AMNews staff. Dec. 10, 2001.

After two groups merged a couple of years ago to form the 53-doctor Anesthesia Medical Consultants, based in Grand Rapids, Mich., the group changed the way physicians were compensated. Instead of sharing the money equally, compensation was tied to individual productivity.

The new system based the anesthesiologists' pay on the number of units they generated or billed in increments of 15 minutes. So, if a physician spent 17 minutes on a case, he or she was credited with two units.

The change meant that doctors had to keep a detailed record of their productivity, said Doug Wiseman, MD, a technology-savvy anesthesiologist with the group. He wrote a handheld-based application to track his cases and proposed that the group use it.

The practice's management agreed to test the application. And after a few months, the result was goodbye software, hello again paper.

While a growing number of physicians nationwide are finding handheld devices useful practice tools, the anesthesiology group's experience shows that the devices aren't for everyone.

The Michigan group's experience also underscores that right now it's far easier to get physicians to adopt technology on an individual level rather than implement it throughout a large group. That's especially true when meeting the demands of individual doctors requires creating a complicated system that obviates the easy standardization of tasks that technology often needs.

Just developing the handheld-based application for the test was complicated enough. Once Dr. Wiseman got the green light from the group, he spent three months developing a paperless form using Pendragon Forms from Pendragon Software Corp., Libertyville, Ill. [...]