Family physician Dr. Nather Alshakarji is the driving force behind the Acton Medical Clinic. Moving his clinic to Clineo Family CMS has increased his billings substantially, reduced the stress of handling large patient volumes and given him more time with his young family.

He describes himself as pretty much the only doctor in town. Two other doctors with offices within the clinic have largely curtailed their practices and so much of the burden of treating of Action's 10,000 residents fell on Nather's capable shoulders.

Prior to automation this volume placed a tremendous burden on the doctor and on the clinic staff. He estimates that 40% of his time was spent seeing patients and 60% spent on paper work, work that could often keep him late at the clinic. His staff struggled to keep up. "It was a disaster," he says with chuckle. "And we thought that was normal."

Overall, he has managed to save about 50% of his time through automating clinical processes and medical records on the Clineo system.

"Now everything I need to know about the patient is right in front my eyes. I don't have to flip through charts finding this or that paper. I am not slowed down by missing blood work, misfiled charts or the pharmacy calling because they can't read a prescription.

"And," he notes, "having all relevant patient data, from past progress notes to lab reports and medications available at the patient encounter is bound to improve overall levels of patient care."

Another important time-saver is Clineo's drug-to-drug interactions tool. With so many of his patients being older and taking seven or more medications, the task of assessing risk of adverse reactions was time-consuming to say the least. Now Clineo does this automatically.

At every turn the system saves him time when handling repetitive activities. For example, he doesn't have to put in the patient's name or health card number on lab requests. Writing scripts and requesting referrals are equally streamlined.

"Managing your practice is about keeping the patient flow running smoothly," Nather says as he moves from exam room to exam room with his HP tablet computer. "I want a smooth even flow with no hiccups and no dead spots. With Clineo I can see who's in the office, and how long they've been waiting. The receptionist can even pass notes about a given patient electronically. If someone has been waiting too long or has a special problem, I can adjust my schedule accordingly, and put off some tasks till later. It keeps the patients happier, and that put less stress on the staff and on me."

Dr. Alshakarji is particularly pleased about the reduction in billing rejects. "We check each health card number the night before automatically. That saves billing rejects and time spent chasing after patients to track down the right card number."

What advice would he give to others? "Clinical management systems are definitely the future of medicine. The idea of change is hard because we are creatures of habit. The actual change is far easier than you might imagine."