What MedicalNotes.com offers...
private, custom-designed, HIPAA compliant, medical record databases
secure, confidential access to your office medical records through the Internet
the ability to easily share records with referring physicians
full-text search of patient records
complete data backup, security, and network administration behind the scenes
no alteration of physician practice style
reduced medical record management cost
this is a low-cost service

MedicalNotes.com was established to improve efficiency and reduce the cost of medical records management in the multi-physician office. We build a database of medical records for each of our members which can be confidentially and securely accessed using the Internet. Because we provide daily data backup, security, and network administration, our members do not need to hire additional personnel or purchase additional office hardware or software to maintain an electronic medical record. Our members only need a personal or laptop computer and an Internet account.

An important consequence of an internet-based office record is the ability to easily and quickly share your patient's record with referring physicians and consultants. If both your practice and your referral source are members of MedicalNotes.com, then with the patient's permission, your notes can appear in your referring physician's database automatically. This ability ends the need for copying and mailing of medical records, and benefits your patients and lowers the office overhead for both you and your referral source.

Record entry is customized to your practice and accepts any method or combination you prefer: transcription, direct online point-of-care entry using customized templates, voice recognition, or scanning. This flexibility allows members of your practice to use the method they prefer and does not force every physician in your practice to use the same method. It does not interfere with your current practice style or workflow.

Record entry using transcription occurs at the time of transcription. After the physician dictates a note, the transcriptionist transcribes the note using standard word processing software and then uploads the note to our server by accessing an input page on our website. The document is encrypted automatically before transmission to our server, and is then added to the practice database. The transcriptionist does not have access to the remainder of the medical record database and cannot view the medical record. This method does not require any change in practice style by the physician.

Records can also be composed and entered at the point of care by the physician if desired using the keyboard or speech recognition. Typically, this is most efficiently accomplished using templates. We provide a set of customized templates for each HCFA category of patient encounter which facilitates optimal documentation and assures confident and appropriate coding practices. Additionally, each member of your practice can modify or design their own set of personal templates. Other components of the medical record, such as EKGs, letters, or lab records can be added later by office personnel using a scanner. Xray images can be added using a digital camera.

MedicalNotes.com also includes a powerful search-engine which allows full-text searching of your medical records. You can search for and return a list of charts containing any word or phrase you specify. This allows you to recover all the patients having a specific diagnosis, or having received a specific drug, or having been referred from or to a specific physician, for example.

Database Design & Security : Your database is designed to fit your practice. Records are sorted by date of service, type of note (office visit, consult,discharge summary,correspondence, Xray, etc) and patient identifier. The format is completely up to you and your office record can be organized in any way you prefer.

Physician-patient confidentiality is essential. To ensure this, access to your medical records database is password protected and MedicalNotes.com uses strong encryption of all sensitive information before it is sent across the Internet either to or from your computer. If this information is illicitly intercepted, it is meaningless. For example, click here to see the encrypted form of this sentence. Decryption occurs on the physician's computer at the time the record is viewed. Additionally, MedicalNotes.com uses a second layer of encryption to protect medical data on its servers. With these measures, your records are visible only to you or other authorized members of your practice. MedicalNotes.com systems and practices are compliant with the newly enacted HIPAA regulations .

The physical security of your database and its connection to the Internet are also essential. Our servers are hosted by InnerHost, the major provider of Microsoft Windows NT/2000 Internet services in the US. Consequently, our servers are housed in a secure building and use redundant high capacity fiberoptic connections to the Internet backbone. This eliminates downtime from physical failures, and assures 99.5% uptime. The servers are protected by state of the art cooling systems, backup generators and fire suppression systems. Complete backups are done nightly and are stored offsite in secure, fire-proof facilities. Click here for the technical details about our hardware and network capabilities.

The value of this service is the increased efficiency. How many times have you attended patients in the emergency room at night or on weekends without access to your own office record ? How often has a patient greeted you with "I just saw Dr. Jones (your partner) yesterday in the office and he changed my medicines. He gave me a blue pill, and ..." With this service, the information you need is immediately and easily available and complete.

Within the next decade, all hospital information systems will be computerized and will have built-in access to the Internet. If you have an internet-based office medical record, you will be able to access your office record simultaneously with the hospital record. Your office record will be available to you regardless of which hospital your patient happens to be in, or where you happen to be at the time.