“We loved every aspect of MEDFAR’s approach. It was always easy to communicate with them, and they treated us the same as a larger clinic.”
MEDFAR Clinical Solutions took off after winning large calls for tenders in Quebec. These major projects earned our team a reputation in the province, and soon small- and medium-sized clinics started to learn about us. Over the years, we have honed our expertise in customizing our products and our client approach to any size of clinic and any work method so that we can continually improve and optimize how medical clinics operate. The Saint-François medical clinic is a fine example. Its determined and audacious team composed of a general practitioner, a nurse, and an administrative assistant, integrated MYLE into its practise in June 2016. This story recounts their experience during this particularly successful implementation.
This was not the first time the Saint-François medical clinic had dabbled in computerization. Like many other clinics, it had developed software in-house to manage scheduling, its patient index, and appointment-making. This tool had been specifically designed by the team to personalize their service offering and to maintain a close relationship with their patients. As for medical activities, from consulting laboratory results to recording progress notes, everything was done by hand, on paper. The MEDFAR team supported the Saint-François medical clinic throughout the MYLE implementation process, making sure to stay true to their values and vision.
Implementing new technology often causes apprehension among clinical staff. Having to type on a keyboard is what bothered Dr. Poulin:
“Even today, I still don’t even know where all the keys are on the keyboard,” he told us during a post-implementation meeting. The community of MYLE users helped create the clickable texts in each of MYLE’s sections for progress notes. Nevertheless, to Dr. Poulin, the biggest challenge was getting accustomed to using a keyboard and a computer every day:
“I found that the most difficult part was learning how to use a keyboard and computer. It took time and effort. But now, my team loves MYLE because they are able to read my notes. They hardly ever come knocking at my door anymore!”
Julie and Mélanie (nurse and administrative assistant, respectively) were apprehensive about the prospect of digitizing the records and consolidating the different work platforms they had used previously (ZoomMed, DSQ, in-house scheduling and patient index). MYLE is a complete tool that unifies all the interfaces that a clinic needs to function properly. To alleviate these concerns, project manager Sabrina Ricard sat down with the clinic’s team to set up an implementation plan that would enable them to integrate computerization effectively into their daily routine. Sabrina stayed with them for a week to train them and provide support during the transition. Due to a holiday, Sabrina provided four days of training and support, then returned for the fifth day after 10 days. Julie liked this approach:
“During the first days, we had to assimilate and process a lot of information. A week or two later, when we needed to do something more advanced with MYLE, we knew we had learned how to do it, but couldn’t remember anymore! Sabrina was able to boost us to another level of proficiency when she came back to work with us on the fifth day.”
Each clinic has a favourite module in MYLE. For the Saint-François clinic, it’s the Results module. MYLE interfaces with laboratory analysis providers so that results are added to the correct patient record through automatic indexing. Dr. Poulin can then annotate the results on the same page, consult graphics, create a progress note in the patient’s record, and send requests to the clinic’s medical or administrative staff to perform tasks. Managing results is quick and easy, and does not necessitate opening several pages.
When we asked them if they could think of any ways that we could improve MYLE, Mélanie mentioned that she had been experiencing some lag when she set appointments, and the nurse, Julie, experienced some lag when she entered medical history information. These slowdowns were caused by Microsoft Silverlight, which MYLE supports. This problem will be resolved with the deployment of an HTML5 version in January 2017.
MEDFAR and its EMR solution MYLE can’t take all the credit for this project. The team at the Saint-François clinic was ready to undertake this transition. This implementation project was the result of their openness and the cooperation between all the members of the team. We would like to take this opportunity to thank them once more for their trust in us. We’re very pleased that you’ve joined the MEDFAR family.
