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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Meditab’s FAQ page aims to help you with any questions regarding healthcare and IMS. If you can’t find the answer to your question below, feel free to contact us or browse through our blogs and webinars.

EHR

  • What is EHR software?

    EHR software is a type of software that helps healthcare providers manage a patient’s medical record. They contain a patient’s medical history, diagnoses, treatment plans, medications, allergies, immunization information, laboratory tests and results, and other medical information necessary to treat a patient. EHRs may also contain clinical decision support tools that help providers treat patients.


    With EHRs, providers deliver better care, streamline their clinical workflow, improve care coordination, provide better patient outcomes, and strengthen security on patient data.

  • What is the difference between EHR and EMR?

     An electronic medical record (EMR) is a digital copy of a patient’s paper chart. It contains the patient’s medical data, history, and the treatments conducted by a particular provider. An electronic health record (EHR) is also a digital copy of a patient’s chart but contains medical information from all clinicians involved in the patient’s care.


    Medical information in EMRs is not easily shareable with other providers, but EHRs are designed to share information and provide access for all the people involved in the patient’s care, including the patient themselves.


    EHRs contain more tools and features that help providers deliver better care, such as clinical decision support, patient engagement apps, lab order integration, and practice analytics. EMRs typically don’t have any of these features.


    READ MORE: What's the Difference Between an EHR and EMR?

  • How long does it take to implement an EHR into my practice workflow?

    The length of time it takes to implement an EHR into a medical organization depends on several factors. EHR software training may take longer for a multi-provider clinic to finish than a single provider practice with fewer staff members. A complicated EHR with numerous features will take longer to familiarize. If the EHR software company allows for customization, that may add time as well. An EHR that requires an on-premise environment will take longer to deploy than a cloud-based EHR.


    However, healthcare practices should aim to fully implement an EHR within 30 days. Designate a leader at your practice and have them coordinate with your EHR company’s designated project manager to set up an implementation plan. Meditab assigns a dedicated project manager for every practice during the implementation phase. Furthermore, our core EHR, IMS, only takes an average of 22 days to implement.


    READ MORE: A Tailored EHR? See Meditab’s Implementation & Training Team in Action

  • What is a "certified" EHR?

    A certified EHR meets the technological capability, functionality, and security requirements set by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) and has received certification from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).


    A certified EHR enables providers to capture and share health data efficiently and assures patients that their data is secure. Several incentive programs, such as MIPS and APM, require providers to use certified EHR technology only. Choosing a certified EHR helps you deliver better care for your patients and helps improve the efficiency of your practice.


  • Is my practice and patient data secure in an EHR?

    Yes, your practice and patient data is secure in an EHR. The HIPAA security rule requires healthcare organizations to implement security safeguards to protect electronic health information. Modern EHRs have built-in security measures such as audit trails, data encryption, and password protection. Additionally, ONC-ATCB certified EHRs meet the technological capability, functionality, and security requirements set by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). When looking for an EHR, ask the vendor if they have these security measures in place and if they are certified by ONC. 


    Practices also need to prevent security breaches. Healthcare data is highly valuable, and cybercriminals are getting more sophisticated. Even with built-in EHR security features, practices need to implement proper prevention measures and create an incident response and recovery plan.


    LEARN MORE: Protect Your Practice Against Cyberattacks

Practice Management

  • What is practice management software in healthcare?

    Practice management software (PMS), or a practice management system, helps run a healthcare practice’s daily operations. Its core functions involve organizing administrative tasks, managing patient appointments, entering patient demographics, collecting patient payments, processing insurance claims, and generating practice reports. 


    Healthcare practices often use EHRs with an integrated practice management system for a more streamlined workflow. However, the two systems serve two different purposes. EHRs manage a patient's medical data, while PMS manages a practice’s administrative and financial functions.

  • What are the advantages and disadvantages of practice management software?

    Practice management software (PMS) brings several advantages to your practice. It automates various routine and administrative tasks, saving your staff time and allowing you to spend more time on patient care. Additionally, automation reduces errors and improves accuracy when processing claims. A practice management software digitizes your workflows and processes, making your practice more efficient. With an organized medical office, your patients get the quality of attention and medical care they deserve. Through analytical reports in your PMS, you can gain insights into your practice’s data, measure your lead generation activities, and see opportunities for growth.


    As with all new technology, implementing practice management software comes with a learning curve that can take time away from patient care. Practices must make an effort to understand how the software works and how to incorporate it into their established workflows. Nevertheless, the advantages of having practice management software will always outweigh the disadvantages.


  • What is a practice administrator?

    Practice administrators manage the daily activities of medical practices. Although their responsibilities vary from one medical practice to another, a practice administrator’s core responsibilities include managing healthcare staff, handling the practice’s finances, monitoring regulatory compliance, and performing general administrative tasks. 


    When implementing a new system, EHR software companies often work with practice administrators to oversee the transition, evaluate the usability of the new system, manage staff training, and coordinate potential problems.

General Healthcare

  • What is MIPS and how does it relate to my EHR?

    MIPS stands for Merit-Based Incentive Payment System. It’s one of the tracks that eligible clinicians can choose to report under the Quality Payment Program (QPP) based on their practice size, specialty, location, or patient volume. Across four performance categories, eligible clinicians can choose to participate in activities and measures that best fit their practice. The eligible clinician’s combined score across the four categories determines their payment adjustment.


    The best thing that practices can do for MIPS reporting is to use a certified EHR. EHRs create workflows and automate processes needed for MIPS reporting. It helps practices capture and report the required data to CMS. EHRs typically have built-in dashboards and reports that allow you to track and monitor your score across the four categories easily. Additionally, some measures require providers to use certified EHRs.


    Learn More: Meditab MIPS Services

  • What is the difference between telehealth and telemedicine?

    Telehealth refers to a broad range of health services using electronic information and telecommunications technology to provide remote healthcare services, public health and health administration, and patient and provider-related education. It includes remote services like telemedicine, prescription delivery, remote monitoring, provider-to-provider communication, health education, physician training, and more.


    On the other hand, telemedicine is a subset of telehealth and solely refers to remote clinical healthcare services. The main difference between the two terms is that telemedicine only refers to remote clinical services, whereas telehealth includes remote clinical and non-clinical services. Remote non-clinical services include administrative meetings, provider-to-provider consultation, continuing medical education, and other provider training.


    Read More: Telemedicine vs. Telehealth: What’s the Difference?

  • What is integrated healthcare?

    Integrated healthcare is the collaboration between healthcare professionals in providing complete and holistic medical care to improve the patient’s overall well-being. With the integrated healthcare approach, care team members share health information to establish a comprehensive treatment plan that addresses the physical, social, and psychological needs of a patient. Depending on the patient’s needs, the care team consists of diverse members, including physicians, nurses, mental health providers, and other healthcare professionals.


    Using an EHR makes it possible to implement the integrated healthcare approach. EHRs help share healthcare data with other providers, streamline communication between members of the care team and collaborate with other healthcare providers on a comprehensive treatment plan.


  • What is a patient portal in healthcare?

    A patient portal is a secure website where patients can conveniently access their health data. Patient portals allow patients to safely communicate with their healthcare provider, pay for medical bills, request prescription refills, download educational materials, join telemedicine sessions, and more.


    When patients have access to their healthcare data, they take a more active role in their health, resulting in better patient outcomes. Providers who implement a patient portal into their practice save time on administrative and routine tasks, build a better relationship with their patient, and increase practice efficiency.


    Read More: 4 Reasons Patient Portals are a Healthcare Win-Win

  • What is EPCS and PDMP?

    Electronic Prescribing of Controlled Substances, or EPCS, is a secure way of transmitting electronic prescriptions of controlled substances to a pharmacy. It incorporates an OTP (one-time password) system by using hard or soft tokens into the e-prescribing workflow for additional security. 


    Read More: What Is EPCS & Does My Practice Need It?


    On the other hand, the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) is an electronic database of a patient’s history of dispensed controlled substances from different providers. When pharmacists dispense controlled substances to patients, they enter the information in their state-based PDMP. Providers then use that information to make informed prescribing decisions, check possible medication misuse, and detect instances of “doctor shopping.”


    Read More: What's the Difference Between EPCS and PDMP?


IMS / EMO

  • What is IMS?

    IMS stands for Intelligent Medical Software and is an EHR, practice management, office management, and medical billing system all within one system. Designed in a modular format, IMS is customizable to each practice’s specific needs and supports over 40 different specialties.

  • What features/solutions does IMS offer?

    More than just an EHR, IMS offers a wide range of features to help your practice boost efficiency, stay compliant, and get paid faster. Find solutions for telemedicine, patient engagement tools, a mobile EHR, practice reporting, e-prescription, lab and diagnostic integration, an appointment booking system, self check-in apps, and more.


    For a complete list of IMS solutions and Meditab services, head over to our homepage and check out the “Solutions” and “Services” drop-down tabs in the menu bar.

  • What specialties does IMS cater to?

    IMS is a specialty-specific EHR in a modular design, catering to over 40+ specialties. AllergyEHR, FertilityEHR, OphthalmologyEHR, and Cosmetisuite are brands under Meditab that cater to allergy, fertility, ophthalmology, and cosmetic practices, respectively. For a complete list of IMS specialties, click here.

  • What is EMO?

    EMO stands for Electronic Medical Office. It’s an entire suite of office management tools integrated with IMS and designed to optimize the medical office. Composed of several practical, time-saving modules, EMO transforms your traditional and manual processes into a digital workflow. Modules include:



    Learn More: EMO: The Next Generation of Practice Platforms

  • Can IMS be used for pharmacies?

    IMS cannot accommodate the specific workflow of pharmacies. However, IPS Elite, Meditab’s pharmacy solution, supports all types of pharmacy settings, including but not limited to retail pharmacies, long-term care pharmacies, 340B pharmacies, specialty pharmacies, and compounding pharmacies.

  • How do I transfer patient data from my old system to IMS?

    When you switch to IMS, Meditab’s data conversion team helps convert data from your old EMR to IMS. Our priority is to make sure your transition to IMS is as smooth as possible. We start by meeting with you and discussing the scope of data you want transferred. Once we receive your requirements, our team begins the conversion process and loads the data in a test environment for your review. Once everything is verified, we load it into your live IMS environment.

  • How can I get started with IMS?

    If you’d like to learn more about IMS or are interested in getting started, kindly fill out this form to schedule a demo and meet with a member of our Sales team. You can also call 1-844-4-Meditab or email sales@meditab.com.

  • How do I contact the Meditab Support Team if I have issues with IMS?

    You can contact Meditab’s Support Team through the three channels below:


    Phone: (510) 201-0130 ext. 2

    Email: support@meditab.com 

    Live Support: support.meditab.com


    Alternatively, you can reach out to your assigned Project Manager or Account Manager. Meditab’s support lines are open 24/7, even on holidays, so you can get the help you need anytime without disrupting patient care.

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