Secure Technology  meridianEMR offers a number of secure technology advantages for your practice.  Template Based Software with the Blended Advantage A template driven EMR is a much more comprehensive EMR system that requires the input of physicians to design. Templates are developed based on each specialty and follow the thought process and examination habits of physicians. As you can imagine, the costs and time to develop this method of documenting in an EMR far exceeds SOAP-based products that allow the provider to merely type or dictate paragraphs into the system. It has cost millions of dollars in physician and software development time to make our system flow like a physician thinks and practices medicine. When witnessing demonstrations of competitive EMR systems, this becomes very evident to the providers that will actually be using the system. We are also the developers of the Blended Template concept. This allows us to develop the core clinical content and maintain the CPT Coding rules in our templates while providing the ability to allow you to customize the templates to meet your needs. You get the "Best of Both Worlds", specific templates for your specialty that are "ready to go" and the ability to customize them without any issues for future updates. Proper Coding This is an area that can provide substantial benefits for your practice. One of our clients, a Urologist, significantly increased his practice revenue in his first year using an EMR system. Most doctors do not select the proper code because of the concern that their documentation cannot support it. During an independent audit our client was told after only ten charts were reviewed that these were the best documented charts they had ever seen. Our unique software and advanced template design has allowed us to build artificial intelligence into our templates based on HCFA rules. The result is a detailed explanation of how the billing code is supported by the documentation that is generated. As your exam work with the patient increases, our system continues to build the supporting documentation for this code. What is the “peace of mind” of proper coding worth to your practice? Blended Model Our unique blended approach of installing a high-speed local server in the office while simultaneously connecting to the Internet provides you with the “best of both worlds". You have the latest in medical content available from the internet, world-wide mobile access to your medical records in true HIPAA compliancy, and the speed and high reliability of a local server. Your patient data is not just stored on your local server, but in a secured remotely hosted data site. Another benefit to our model is that unlike pure web-based products that require high-speed access, normally an expensive T1 line that costs approximately $1,000 per month, we only require one DSL or cable connection per location. Data Encryption As there is a tremendous need for privacy, our encryption techniques are the highest in the industry. As a matter of fact, our Chief Software Architect (who also is a physician and an owner in the company) is called on as a consultant by various organizations because of his knowledge in this area, as well as in the area of hacker prevention. Our system is probably the ONLY system where the data on the local server in an office is encrypted using the best encryption techniques available, so if this server is stolen, no one can get into this system and retrieve any data at all. Web-based product for “Universal Access” Any great EMR must have universal access to the patient data, so a provider can easily retrieve this information anywhere, anytime, in a HIPAA compliant manner. Our system was designed from the beginning as a web-based product, so anywhere a provider has Internet access they can access their data in a fast and secured environment. This truely makes our system unique. Multi-Office Connectivity and Data Sharing As a result of our blended model, your organization would receive a huge savings in the cost of connecting your various offices. Most other EMR systems we are aware of require equipment to connect multiple physical locations. Our system writes the clinical data to both your local server and our large hosted system via the Internet. Database Reporting As most EMR systems are NOT template based, you will have a difficult time extracting very specific data. This is because as you are primarily entering text, whether it is via the keyboard or via voice recognition, the data has to be stored as text files, not SPECIFIC fields of reportable data. This is a great reason why you should not dictate into charts if at all possible. If you want to be able to retrieve any clinical information, it must be stored in fields that can be described and mapped to a report writer. Using this technology allows you unlimited access to reporting on your vast clinical database. Remember, if you do NOT have a template driven EMR that STORES the data in defined fields, it will be almost impossible to extract and analyze the text-based paragraphs that other SOAP-based EMRs provide. Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act (HIPAA) Compliance As physicians were the prime developers and designers of our software, we are proud to offer more HIPAA compliance than probably any other company. From data encryption to logins and passwords, we take very seriously the role we play in this area. Every step of our EMR process involves encryption, security and accountability. All packets sent between computers on our system are encrypted with 128-bit SSL. Our local servers are also secure, as they are running under Linux with an encrypted file system. This means that even physical theft of a server would not compromise confidentiality. Within the system, each user has a defined security pass level that is set by the practice administrator. This ensures that each person has access only to the information he or she is permitted to see. At the server level, all requests for information are logged by the database. This provides complete accountability for who obtained confidential information and on what date and time. Software Updates As we are an Internet-based application, we can update our software more often than the traditional method of mailing CD's or other media. Our update process takes place automatically and without interruption to your office. We can also provide additional managed services such as weekly backups. Our Technology Principles We only employ technologies that are industry standard, machine independent, and provide a robust and stable computing environment. Sun’s Java Programming Language W3 Consortium XML Language Microsoft's Web OS 2008 Microsoft XP, Vista , Windows 7, Apple Leopard Postgres Relational Database / Microsoft SQL Server Blended Model combines the best of client server and ASP models. The local server in the practice provides immediate access and the master server provides universal access to the medical record. Advantages of the “Blended Model” Universal Access to EMR – “Anywhere, Anytime” Access to all Medical Resources on the Internet Database Synchronization No Software Distribution Issues Latest Versions of ICD, CPT, and Drug Databases We Manage Your Backups and Provide Monthly CD’s No Connectivity Needed Between Offices Desktop Area “Serves” Latest Healthcare News & Information(/li> Online Help Services – Tech Chat, Support, Training Materials We Manage Outside Interfaces to Labs, PMS, etc. Data Security & HIPAA Concerns Your local server’s database is fully encrypted with access only via a secure password. This is fully HIPAA compliant and removes potential liability. NIST Advanced Encryption Technique 128 bit AES – Considered Unbreakable 128 bit SSL For All Data Communications RSA Public Key Authentication Digitally Signed Certificates Blakey-Shamir Secret Key Splitting Method Biometrix Access Configurations At the practice level, the meridianEMR application resides in a local Grade I server that operates as the hub of a local client network. The server will support the operations of the clients that a physician or nurse choose to use for data entry. That device is usually a tablet computer for office use or a Netbook for external use. Other peripheral devices such as scanners and printers will be networked to the server as well. meridianEMR works closely with to hardware suppliers such as Dell, IBM, HP and Fujitsu as well as major distributors such as CDW, Seneca Data and PC Connection to provide clients with the most efficient hardware at an economic price. Look for recommended hardware configuration designs soon in this section of the site. As part of the initial contact with the practice, the meridianEMR Account Manager will provide work sheets for the practice to forward to the IT company that will be installing the practice’s hardware and network. The hardware and network installers must follow meridianEMR recommendations and setup instructions. Lack of proper hardware and network procurement and installation is a major contributor to failed EMR deployments. Proper coordination and following of recommendations will make for a better implementation. Security The meridianEMR application follows a multi-layered approach to security which covers internal and external communications, data security, and data access accountability. The latest security technologies such as NIST Advanced Encryption Technique, RSA Public Key Authentication and Biometrix Access are incorporated into the application. Every step of the meridianEMR application process involves encryption, security and accountability. All packets in traffic within mEMRxChange are encrypted with 128-bit SSL. Local servers are fully encrypted with access only via a secure password. Physical theft of a server would not compromise patient confidentiality. meridianEMR complies with HIPAA required security standards for access control, audit control, personnel authentication and transmission security. meridianEMR also voluntarily complies with suggested standards that ensure data safety and security including automatic logoffs of remote-access sessions, encryption and decryption, to protect health data transmitted over networks, integrity policies that protect health data from unauthorized alteration or destruction, and transmission security to ensure that health data is not improperly modified without protection All requests for information within meridianEMR are documented with the user and time stamp information. This feature provides complete accountability as to who obtained confidential information and when. Only authorized practice members have access to chart data. Practice Administrators have complete control over the level of access (from none to full) that each practice member has to the chart data. All of these features are fully HIPAA compliant and remove potential liability from the practice.