News &
updates
Announcing new features, celebrating great partnerships and keeping you up to date with important industry trends
As of October 2014, Surgimate welcomed our newest client, First Settlement Orthopaedics. Since 1967, the Ohio based Orthopaedic practice has devoted itself to providing exceptional Orthopaedic care to patients throughout the Mid Ohio Valley. Today, First Settlement boasts five locations throughout the state with five surgeons who remain committed to providing top-notch care to their patients. Surgimate is thrilled to work with First Settlement and ensure their continued growth and success as an efficient, modern practice. Learn more about their practice here.
The Chesapeake Orthopaedic & Sports Medicine Center has provided comprehensive orthopaedic care for more than 35 years, for patients of all ages in Fort Meade, MD and Anne Arundel County, MD. The practice has five surgeons who operate at two different hospitals in the Baltimore area including the University of Maryland Baltimore Washington Medical Center and the Surgery Center Glen Burnie. Learn more about their practice here. Surgimate is proud to welcome The Chesapeake Orthopaedic & Sports Medicine Center to our growing family.
The Norwich Orthopaedic Group is a 10 surgeon practice in North Franklin, CT. The practice has been in operation for more than 50 years, and has dedicated itself to providing patients the highest quality care available in Connecticut area. Their surgeons operate at six facilities in the Connecticut area including the William W Backus Hospital, Constitution Surgical Center East, Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center, Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, River Valley Ambulatory Surgical Center, and the Lawrence + Memorial Hospital. Learn more about their practice here. Surgimate is proud to welcome the practice on board.
The Florida Sports Injury and Orthopedic Institute is a world-class healthcare center run by dedicated, compassionate and highly skilled medical professionals who genuinely care about successful recovery. The practice has two surgeons who operate at four hospitals in Florida, including Clermont Ambulatory Surgical Center, South Lake Hospital, Southlake Outpatient Surgical Center, and the Downtown Surgical Center (Novamed). Florida Sports Injury will now use Surgimate in order to streamline their surgical scheduling process. Read more about their practice here.
DIAGNOSIS:
“Our surgical scheduling workflow was terribly inefficient,” explained Marilyn Plomann, Practice Administrator of NYOG. “Our EHR does not meet our scheduling needs as it is designed for managing clinical visits, not for processing surgery.”
SYMPTOMS:
“Even after we had implemented our EHR, there was paperwork all over the place,” said Plomann. All of the forms and letters necessary for scheduling surgeries were completed by hand, and there were multiple paper calendars being managed for each surgeon. “It was an inefficient way to manage our business. We didn’t know the status of anything. We were literally scrambling!”
PROCEDURE:
Surgimate ESRM (Electronic Surgical Record Manager) automates every step of the surgical scheduling process, and completely streamlines the workflow. Paperwork is generated automatically and information is transferred electronically. All information surrounding surgical scheduling is stored and readily accessed from one central location.
FINDINGS:
Operational efficiency has increased considerably. “I save at least 30 minutes with every surgery I book,” explained Maggie Sachson, surgical scheduler. “Surgimate is fantastic! Everything is completely streamlined!”
BENEFITS:
“Surgimate has made a significant impact on the way we run our office!” explained Plomann. “Our communication has definitely improved. Now the surgeons receive their updated schedules on their phones so they are aware of any changes or cancellations.” Surgimate ESRM also provides NYOG with insight into their business. “I am able to run reports on surgical revenue that I was not able to obtain from any other system. The surgeons can then use this information to make better decisions
About NYOG
The eight surgeons at NYOG are renowned as “The Ear, Nose & Throat Specialists” in New York and have been recognized among the city’s leading doctors. NYOG has four office locations and their surgeons perform surgery at six hospitals. Learn more about NYOG here.
Surgimate, the market leader in surgical scheduling solutions, has announced that the Mid Maryland Musculoskeletal Institute (MMI), a nine surgeon orthopaedic practice in Frederick, MD, has gone live with Surgimate ESRM.
“Efficiency is everything,” said Quinten Davis, chief operating officer at MMI. “As a large and diverse orthopaedic musculoskeletal practice, we needed a tool to help us manage the surgical scheduling process more effectively.”
Prior to Surgimate ESRM, MMI’s surgery scheduling workflow was a laborious, manual process. Even after implementing a new EHR system, the surgical scheduling was still on paper. All of the forms were completed by hand, paperwork was transferred manually to the insurance & billing departments, and multiple paper calendars were maintained.
“Each surgeon had two separate paper calendars,” explained Margie Kelly, surgical scheduling manager. “One paper calendar would sit on the surgeon’s desk and the other was in the scheduler’s office. Considering we have nine surgeons and five different office locations, the surgeons were never looking at the most up-to-date calendar, and we could not always schedule surgeries with an accurate date.”
Surgimate ESRM provides one central system where staff can access all of the information surrounding surgeries. This includes a dedicated surgical calendar that can manage all of the surgeons’ schedules within one application. This calendar is updated in real-time and can also be synchronized with a surgeon’s smartphone – enabling the surgeon to access their schedule both inside and outside the office.
“As a manger, I’m going to use the calendar in Surgimate ESRM to ensure each surgeon’s block time is maximized,” said Kelly. “The reporting features will also enable me to see how many surgeries were scheduled, cancelled, or withdrawn, and if there are any trends emerging.”
Surgimate ESRM will also automate the entire workflow at MMI, eliminating the paper trail. All hospital forms, insurance forms and patient letters will be generated with the click of a button. Information will be transferred electronically between departments, and authorizations will be tracked using an electronic checklist.
“Now we will be able to schedule surgeries more efficiently and with greater accuracy,” added Kelly, “and we will have more control over the workflow.”
“MMI selected Surgimate ESRM after performing a thorough analysis of all of the available options to improve their surgical scheduling workflow,” said Justin Rockman of Surgimate. “We congratulate MMI on their successful transition and commend the team for their hard work. Surgimate looks forward to continuing to work together with MMI to further improve their processes, maximize their surgical revenue and help deliver the highest quality of health care for their patients.”
“We are excited to see the changes Surgimate ESRM will bring to our office,” added Davis. “Particularly as we look to expand our practice, Surgimate ESRM will play an integral role.”
About MMI
Mid-Maryland Musculoskeletal Institute (MMI) is a nine surgeon practice with offices in Frederick, Urbana, and Hagerstown, Maryland. They are recognized throughout the region for our expertise in both general and specialized Orthopaedic, Rheumatology and Physical Medicine care and provide state-of-the-art medical and surgical treatment. Click here to visit their website.
Surgimate, the market leader in surgical management solutions, applauds The New York Otolaryngology Group (NYOG) for going live with Surgimate ESRM earlier this week.
The eight surgeons at NYOG are renowned as “The Ear, Nose and Throat Specialists” in New York and have been recognized among New York City’s leading doctors within their fields of specialization.
Marilyn Plomann, Practice Administrator, explained why NYOG chose Surgimate. “Greenway PrimeSuite, our EHR, did not have any functionality to support our surgical scheduling workflow,” said Plomann, “Surgimate ESRM will complete those tasks and complement our EHR.”
With surgeons consulting patients at four different office locations, a lot of paperwork had to be manually transferred between offices. “Even after we had implemented our EHR, there was paperwork all over the place,” said Plomann, “it was not an efficient way to manage a business!”
Surgimate ESRM will automate every step of the surgical scheduling process at NYOG, and streamline their workflow. There will now be one central location where all information surrounding surgical scheduling is stored and readily accessed.
“Surgimate will definitely improve our communication,” explained Plomann, “The surgeons will easily be able to find out the status of each surgery, and our billing and scheduling departments will now be able to transfer information electronically.”
From the schedulers’ perspective, productivity will increase considerably since all paperwork will be generated automatically, and insurance authorizations will be tracked electronically. “We will be able to identify the status of an authorization with a few clicks,” explained Maggie Sachson, surgical scheduler. “Surgimate will definitely help things run more smoothly.”
“We are delighted to welcome NYOG to the Surgimate network,” said Justin Rockman of Surgimate. “Surgimate is excited to expand our customer base to include one of New York’s leading Otolaryngology practices. Surgimate is a winning solution for any surgical practice in any specialty. We look forward to working with NYOG to help improve their operational efficiency and maximize their surgical revenue.”
“We are really excited about Surgimate” added Plomann, “and we are looking forward to seeing how SugiMate will change our office!”
To learn more about The New York Otolaryngology Group, click here.
NEW YORK, NY – JULY 30, 2012 – Surgimate, the market leader in surgical management solutions, has enabled The Orthopaedic Group (TOG) in New Haven, Connecticut to drastically reduce time spent on surgical scheduling by 75% with Surgimate ESRM.
TOG is a high volume practice and is recognized as one of the nation’s outstanding resources for musculoskeletal care. Collectively, the seven surgeons at TOG perform approximately 250 surgeries per month, generating a considerable amount of paperwork. “We use 85 different forms across the 5 facilities our surgeons operate at,” said Theresa Fischman, surgical scheduler. “On average, we need 10-12 forms per surgical case.” With the high volume of surgeries at TOG, this amounts to over 2700 pages of forms each month.
“Surgimate ESRM automated all of our paperwork,” said Wendie Hames, Clinical Operations Manager at TOG. “Today the schedulers do not need to hand write any of those forms. This is a tremendous transformation for our entire practice!”
“With Surgimate ESRM, scheduling a surgical case takes us 25% of the time that it used to,” exclaimed Fischman. “It now takes me 10 minutes to schedule a case compared to a minimum of 40 minutes prior to having Surgimate ESRM.”
With the drastic reduction in scheduling time, the surgical schedulers at TOG now spend more time communicating with patients and generating new revenue.
“When my surgeon is out of the office, I no longer need the time to catch-up,” explained Fischman. “Instead, I use that time to run reports and do some analysis on patients who have not yet scheduled surgery or have not decided on whether they would like to have surgery. I then follow up with these patients and get them on the schedule.”
“We are thrilled that Surgimate has made such a significant impact at TOG in such a short time-frame,” said Sari Nossbaum of Surgimate. “The staff at TOG were very enthusiastic from day one and their commitment to this project has made it a tremendous success.”
“We are extremely happy with Surgimate,” said Hames, “it has really changed the way we do everything. We are more efficient and our patient care has improved considerably.”
About Surgimate
Surgimate is the market leader in surgical management solutions. Developed to cater to the unique needs of surgical practices, Surgimate has been streamlining surgical practices in the United States for over 10 years. Orthopedic Practices choose Surgimate to increase productivity, and manage their processes more efficiently and effectively.
For more information, visit www.Surgimate.com, e-mail info@Surgimate.com, or call (212) 923-5225
