Andromeda: Your Key To Unlocking The
 Benefits Of EMR/EHR For Your Practice

Earliest Possible Adoption IS The Key To Maximum Benefit

Government financial incentive for early adoption of EMR systems is an important motivator, of course. But it is worth noting that the ultimate benefit of implementing such a system lies in the stream-lined efficiency and ease with which it will allow you to conduct your practice. This is true for both internal interactions among your staff and with patients as well as external interactions with hospitals and government health entities. The benefits extend well beyond government reporting and patient billing. They reach into the very heart of your daily practice: patient charting, self-documenting prescriptions, appointment scheduling, information flow among doctors and hospitals, and much more. Mistakes and miscommunications in any of these areas can be both costly and dangerous—EMR systems can be your best weapon against them! Clearly, delayed implementation of an EMR simply delays the daily benefits that you will ultimately reap from one.

How Can We Be So Confident?

• Since our inception (1994), we have served all manner of small businesses, providing IT software & hardware installation, service, and support from building wiring to server/computer setups, from websites to email/web hosting, from in-house data networks to integrated remote office voice networks.
• For more than 8 years, we have been installing and supporting EMR/EHR and Practice Management systems for physician offices throughout northern Illinois.
• Our EMR installations include top vendors such as Greenway PrimeSUITE™, AllScripts™, gMed™, GE Centricity^®, AllMeds^®, Varian, and more...
• Anyone can sell you a bloated set of hardware or—worse—an unstable "not quite enough memory" headache. Our vast general & EHR-specific data networking experience enables us to specify a "mama bear" just right, memory/server configuration every time! There's no need to gamble with your own business!
• Our unsurpassed local support means you are typically never more than a few days away from a service call from one of our IT-certified technicians on staff. Same-Day emergency service is the norm—not an exception!
• Sounds too good to be true? We're happy to provide you with references from among our many satisfied EMR/EHR customers.

Hosted "Cloud-Based" EMR Solutions

Cloud-based or hosted EMR (also known as ASP, web-based, or Saas EMR) is a newer option for medical facilities interested in making use of EMR systems. In essence, Andromeda Technology Solutions can host your actual EMR software system on its own secure servers while you interact with it just as if the system resided physically within your office. Compared to a traditional in-house client/server model, this solution can shorten the implementation cycle and greatly reduce impact on your current data network while significantly reducing up-front costs.

This is a summary of the Hosted Solutions we offer for EMR/EHR medical software. While we customize each solution to match the customers’ needs, common features and options of our setups include:

• Both dedicated and semi-dedicated servers are available.
• State-of-the-art hardware, including Dell and Lenovo Systems.
• 24x7x365 monitoring of servers and software.
• Redundant hard drives and power supplies to protect against hardware failure and eliminate downtime
• Hourly backups and nightly offsite copy.
• Hot-spare server that can take over for a failed device in under one hour.
• Chicagoland area data center was built to ANSI / TIA 942 Datacenter Standards. SAS70 Type 2 Datacenter audited by third party firm
• Customers and clients have been audited and passed HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, Gramm-Leach-Bliley, SAS-70
• Data center is PCI compliant for credit card handling and handling of financial data
• Multiple Physical POEs (points of entry) for fiber inputs into center
• Redundant APC UPS's: uninterruptible power supply batteries, powers equipment during generator startup
• Cummins diesel generator: Hospital-grade diesel generators provide for all datacenter operations
• N+1 Power Redundancy on all systems. No single point of failures possible
• Generator backup: 24 hours of on-site fuel plus emergency refueling service to resupply in an emergency

Andromeda will either work with your current IT vendor or directly with you to get connected to your applications at the data center. There are various ways this can be done; the best approach will depend on your exact needs.

Your Key To Unlocking Government Incentives For EMR/EHR

Time is of the essence! By delaying your EMR/EHR installation into 2010, you have already missed out on some one-time tax incentives (Section 179 bonus write-offs). Other stimulus incentives are in place but are already slated for phase out over the coming years. For example:

ARRA HITECH Act* Physician Reimbursement Plan (Medicare) Electronic Health Records Software EHR Adoption Year Reimbursements 2011 → 2016 2011 ↓ 2015 $44,000 ↓ $0

If your practice includes a sufficient amount of Medicaid services, the maximum could be as much as $63,750! * Limitations apply. This material presents Andromeda's interpretation of the stimulus act as described in the Title XIII Health Information Technology portion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Please consult the United States government websites for specific details. Andromeda relies on information from 3rd parties and accepts no responsibility or liability for the content provided herein.

One of the many keys to avoid losing out on the maximum reimbursement lies with the full understanding of the phrase "Adoption Year." While the details of the final government requirements are not fully defined, this much should be clear:

• "Adoption" refers to "meaningful use" of an accredited EHR system
• "Year" refers to verified "meaningful use" by January 1st of that year
• "Meaningful use" implies, at minimum:
1. A purchased, installed & fully functioning EMR/EHR system
2. A staff fully-trained with all or at least most aspects of the system
3. More than token application of the system for patient records and interaction

This means that a medical practice still contemplating a conversion to an accredited EMR system now has less than one year's time to:

1. Decide on which of over 100 EMR systems to implement
2. Contract an experienced, reputable, local IT company to install it (and expand your data network as necessary to accommodate it!)
3. Complete the staff training phase
4. Accumulate enough patient record use to pass a government determination for "meaningful use" by 1/1/2011!

So, what will it take for you to achieve the maximum (and earliest possible) stimulus reimbursements? You should complete the first two steps outlined above by early 2010 to allow reasonable time to complete the rest. Furthermore, it is essential that the installation be complete and error-free before training begins. Even one "flaky" machine, connection, or component means that training is delayed or, worse, trainer and trainee get hopelessly confused over a problem that isn't even theirs to deal with!

This is precisely the area where Andromeda shines. First, while we are not EMR selection consultants, our vast experience in the field gives us access to resources—some offering free services to their clients!—that provide individualized, non-partisan advice for EMR/EHR selection.

More to the point, Andromeda makes the installation/support step of the process completely painless.