3 minute read
Fluency Direct rolling out in the offices of fee-for-service physicians
By Maria Ryhorski
A new program being rolled out by the SMA’s EMR program in partnership with 3sHealth and the Ministry of Health has doctors raving about the increased efficiency it has brought to their practice.
Fluency Direct works with the EMR so that, as a physician speaks, their notes appear directly in the patient’s record. The software transcribes with great accuracy by learning the physician’s voice, accent and language nuances. Until now the software has been available only to non-fee-for-service physicians through 3sHealth, leaving fee-for-service docs like Dr. Brown without funding to access this time-saver.
At the 2018 Fall Representative Assembly, Aftab Ahmad, director of the Saskatchewan EMR Program, heard from a concerned physician about the need for this type of solution among family doctors. He worked with that physician to shape a resolution directing the EMR program to take the lead in bringing access to fee-for-service physicians. “The biggest barrier was initial cost,” says Ahmad. “Now our program is providing that initial cost, the implementation and ongoing support. This work is directly connected to our Enhanced Use Strategy, whereby we assist physicians with using a variety of tools to enhance the functionality that they have within their EMR. It creates a better platform for analytics, better reporting, and with more digitization comes greater ease of use.”
In a partnership that Ahmad describes as “phenomenal,” the Saskatchewan EMR Program worked with 3sHealth and the Ministry of Health to bring this efficiency into the offices of fee-for-service physicians.
"3sHealth is excited to collaborate with the SMA to bring self-edit dictation to physicians working in numerous patient care settings across the system,” says Julie Johnson, director of Provincial Dictation and Transcription Services at 3sHealth. “With approximately 600 Saskatchewan physicians already using self-edit software to dictate, edit and upload care reports all in one step, we are seeing significant benefits for patients and their care teams. These benefits include rapid availability of patient-care information, standardized documentation, reduced delays for patients and well-informed care teams."
Erin Kulcsar, team lead of the EMR program, is spearheading the roll out of the Fluency Direct program to SMA members.
The program is now prepared for wider distribution, with funding available to provide the initial start-up cost of $2,350 (implementation, hardware, training and first-year subscription cost) for Fluency Direct to each fee-for-service doctor. These doctors would then be responsible for the ongoing licencing costs of $425 per year, beginning in year two. The EMR program has dedicated practice advisors to provide one-on-one support and training to physicians, as users learn the program and how to optimize its use in their practice.
For Dr. Brown, the decision to get Fluency Direct was an easy one.
“I firmly believe that any physician who cannot type faster than they can talk needs a voice-recognition system to complement their electronic medical record,” he says. “From a cost point of view, I believe it is extremely good value for money. Further, I find that I am less fatigued than I was prior to using Fluency Direct, due to the improved efficiency. This improved work-life balance has been a massive boost for me.”
If you are a fee-for-service physician interested in accessing Fluency Direct, please contact Erin Kulcsar at erin.kulcsar@ sma.sk.ca or emr@sma.sk.ca. ◆
