Peninsula Cardiology Group

Summary

A large cardiology specialist group needs more than just manual diary books to organise doctors’ busy schedules across multiple practice sites.

Ten years ago, Peninsula Cardiology Group moved away from a paper-based scheduling system to MedicalDirector’s specialist practice management system Bluechip integrated with Clinical, and was delighted by the efficiency outcomes.

Background

Peninsula Cardiology Group is a specialist practice comprising both general and interventional cardiologists, with four sites across Dee Why, Wahroonga, Mona Vale and Frenchs Forest in NSW. All four sites’ IT infrastructure links back to a central server in Mona Vale.

Employing 6 full-time cardiologists, and a team of nurses, sonographers and support staff, Peninsula Cardiology Group offers a suite of in-house services including echocardiography, stress testing and a wide range of other diagnostic evaluations.

The Challenge

As a dynamic and fast-paced practice group, Practice Manager Liz Morton said the cardiologists from Peninsula Cardiology are always on the move. This means rostering needs to be as organised as quickly as possible.

"From day to day, our cardiologists, nurses and support staff move from practice-to-practice, so things can get quite complicated."

Prior to implementing an integrated solution by MedicalDirector, the practice group was using a competitor product, using old-fashioned, manual diaries to manage the specialists’ schedules.

"But everything changed when one of the specialists saw another practice using Bluechip, and was very impressed with its features and functionality," Liz said.

The Solution

MedicalDirector’s specialist practice management software Bluechip, integrated with Clinical has been Peninsula Cardiology Group’s go-to solution for over a decade to effectively manage all four practice sites.

"It’s so easy to generate reports and quickly access patient records. From an accounting perspective, you get a clear snapshot of how much you’ve made in a day, which makes managing our financial flow so much easier."

The Result

It didn’t take long after implementing MedicalDirector’s Bluechip and Clinical that the Peninsula Cardiology Group began to enjoy even greater efficiency outcomes such as running reports more quickly. Managing the daily workflow complexities of a team of roaming specialists also became a breeze.

"What we’ve particularly found useful is that all our cardiologists run different tests, and the colour-coding within Bluechip helps to effectively organise all the different types of tests," Liz said. "We can also easily manage the scheduled list for the sonographer against the doctor’s list for the day, meaning the day runs smoothly."

The software system is so simple to understand and navigate, that practice managers, new specialists and support staff can also get up and running with little or no training.

"When I started working here eight years ago, I actually taught myself how to use the software, that’s how easy it is to use,” Liz added. “Plus as more cardiologists join our growing team, it’s easy for us to just add on another software license. They also don’t have time for lots of training sessions and workshops, so they like the fact they can just come in and work it out fairly quickly."

Over the years, as healthcare admin and needs have continued to evolve, Peninsula Cardiology Group are very impressed with MedicalDirector’s agile approach to innovation.

"The software is always evolving to meet the needs of today’s specialists, which we really like," Liz explained. "And the support team are so easy to talk to, helpful and friendly. I don’t even need my IT team to help when I update our software, I just do the updates myself."