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Physicians, Patients Find Cure For Health System Red Tape With Doctations, Inc.

Posted on: Wednesday, 6 February 2008, 12:00 CST

The average primary care physician today spends roughly 30% of his or her time documenting patient care for compliance purposes, and about 20% managing their support staff--which leaves only 50% of each day available for doing what they love and are trained for: treating patients. Clearly, red tape has the American healthcare system on life support.

Electronic Medical Record (EMR) technology was supposed to cure this disease. But forty years after the first EMR software was developed, 85% of all doctors have refused to use it. Why? Because--despite institutional mandates, numerous fixes and even presidential pressure--EMR solutions have been found to be impractical, time-consuming and far too expensive.

Doctations, Inc., a new company, was founded by a group of experienced physicians who were convinced they could do better. Their idea was to leverage the best of what cutting-edge Internet technology can deliver, but with a twist: bring patients, office staff and service providers together in a single, intuitive and secure online environment where information can be entered and shared with minimal hassle. As the efficiency and interaction goes up...so does the value. And everyone benefits.

The result, DocPatientNetwork.com, is a comprehensive suite of healthcare web browser applications with distinct advantages for both doctors and those who depend on them. The result of extensive focus group testing and research into what would make doctors' lives easier and more productive, DocPatientNetwork.com includes:

A Shared Patient Database that enhances a doctor's effectiveness by supporting a complete history of his or her care for a patient. The history includes HIPAA compliant access to other physician's records for the patient as well as the patient's own information, e.g., prescriptions, allergies, current symptoms, and compliance with treatment plans.

A built-in Patient Health Record, accessible by the patient, that contains all the patient's test results and other pertinent medical information. The PHR is organized so any provider--with patient authorization--can have access to the patient's "Clinical Vault".

Integrated dictation and transcription services that allow doctors to document the same way they do now, only faster and at lower cost. Supporting both writing and dictation, the online service lowers recordkeeping time and costs by up to 80%.

Complete insurance documentation that generates financial reimbursement commensurate with care.

Facilitated collaboration between doctors, and between doctors and patients. Doctors can use a HIPAA-compliant, multimedia "answering machine" that allows them to communicate securely with each other as well as their patients, and patients can make or change appointments as needed. With DocPatient.com, patients can actually communicate with their very own physician--the way healthcare was meant to be.

Dr. Louis Cornacchia III, M.D., F.A.C.S. and president/CEO of Doctations, explained that DocPatient.com has been thoroughly tested by patients, doctors and service providers alike for over one year. "We believe that good healthcare requires a community which promotes a strong doctor-patient relationship. With our internet based system, groups of doctors and their patients form Web Integrated Healthcare Communities (WiHCs)."

DocPatientNetwork.com fits easily into current medical practice systems and routines, and requires no upfront software purchase by the doctor or the patient. And because it incorporates world-class data security and password-protected gateways, information is shared at each point with only those parties who are authorized to view it. Yet DocPatient.com is flexible enough that emergency rooms can gain immediate access to records if or when necessary.

Basic DocPatientNetwork.com services are provided free for patients, with the comprehensive online shared documents with fax in capability available for $9.99/year. PHR allows patients to share all their medical history information with all of their doctor's offices, as well as the ability to fax, or upload, documents into their vault.

Physician use of DocPatientNetwork.com is exceptionally cost-effective; the basic tier is free, providing access to their patients' online medical data as well as the ability to produce up to a dozen digital medical records on a trial basis.

A video overview of the service is available at www.docpatientnetwork.com

About Doctations, Inc.

Doctations™ Inc., is a company dedicated to creating innovative new, internet-based means of transacting healthcare. The goal is to make healthcare more accessible to patients, and to substantially improve the process of generating medical documentation in all venues of healthcare: the physician's private office, the physician group's office, the ambulatory surgery center, and hospitals. We bring users the benefit of electronic medical records without the burden or expense of difficult-to-use software. We also believe that free-market forces with appropriate government regulation is the best means of achieving improved doctor-patient relationships have concluded that the internet provides an excellent means for achieving this vision and for catalyzing change that will improve healthcare for patients and doctors. Visit www.docpatientnetwork.com.

Source: Business Wire

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