September 2016 • Ophthalmology Business 11
Using an option
from EHR
When ophthalmologist Aaleya Koreishi, MD, physi-
cian on medical staff, Texas Health Arlington Memorial
Hospital, Arlington, Texas, opened her practice 3.5 years
ago, she turned to the electronic health records (EHR)
company NextGen Healthcare (Horsham, Pennsylva-
nia), which had a program she had used in the past. She
then started a patient portal through NextGen 2 years
ago when it became required for Meaningful Use com-
pliance. The patient portal is a secure system for patient
communication, integrated into the patient's electronic
chart. Patients can ask questions, request health infor-
mation, and request appointments. Now that she has
both EHR and electronic practice management (EPM)
systems through NextGen, "Our staff can go between
the health record/portal and the EPM without changing
systems. The patient portal is integrated into NextGen,"
she said.
"Although the system allows secure communica-
tion, it is not an electronic scheduling system. The staff
still has to call or email the patient back through the
portal to finalize appointments. It is a move in the direc-
tion toward an electronic system, but still requires staff
to directly put appointment changes into the EPM."
To communicate, request, or change appointments
through the patient portal, patients must first set up
their account. The office will provide the patient with
a token number (password) to establish their portal
account through their personal email.
Use of the portal to set appointments has been
low. "Most still communicate via phone. Between 2%
and 5% try to use the online system. I have a website
'contact us' option, and I receive a few emails from
patients about appointments, so we have to call patients
back to schedule appointments," Dr. Koreishi said.
Dr. Koreishi said that maintaining compliance
with Meaningful Use (not just the online appointment-
setting portion) required the hiring of more staff to
manage the extra information and paperwork. OB
Editors' note: The physicians have no financial interests
related to their comments.
Contact information
Fishkin: Joseph@FishkinMD.com
Kaplan: drkaplan@pacificheightsplasticsurgery.com
Koreishi: aaleya.koreishi@me.com
Parks: aparks@eastsidedermatology.com
