Why more GPs are turning to cloud health software

Cloud technology is fast becoming recognised as not only the future of enabling a better health digital ecosystem, but also helping to ease a lot of administrative burdens for busy health professionals. More and more health professionals are turning to cloud technology as a time-saving, flexible solution to offering more personalised, patient-centric care.

In this article, we speak to three health practitioners to discover why they chose cloud as their go-to clinical and practice management solution.

Managing patients with complex conditions

Dr Aged Care is a practice of roving doctors who deliver much needed care in residential aged care homes around Victoria. Dr Azadul Islam, who runs the practice, said the practice chose a cloud-based clinic software solution because it provides not only the flexibility to deliver care throughout the community, but also the interface to effectively manage the health of elderly patients, many of whom have complex care needs.

 “We work with mature patients who have multiple medical conditions, meaning treatment can be complex,” he explained. “Therefore, we need to have all patient information in clear view during our consultations.”

“Helix, by MedicalDirector, has a sliding interface where you can come in and out easily without having to close different windows of patient information. In a single view, I can see the patient’s medication list, full medical history and timeline while I’m in a consult.”

It also needed an interface that provides a holistic patient view, displaying all relevant patient information easily, without having to open and close new windows.

“Helix loads quickly and displays all relevant patient information in one display, without having to open and close up different windows,” he added.

Prescription management on the go

As a busy psychiatrist working in and out of his Sydney clinic, Dr Leonard Chin needed a software solution that was as mobile as he was, where he could better manage his workflow and free up more time to offer better, more personalised patient care.

As a psychiatrist who works with the underprivileged and disadvantaged, where prescription of medication to tackle mental issues that affect patient’s memory and organisation is common, Dr Chin also needed a solution that had an efficient prescription management system which was accessible on the go.

“The prescription process is a core part of what I do, so I was looking for a solution that can help make this process as efficient and fuss-free as possible,” he said.

After conducting a range of searches for the best cloud-based software solution, Helix by MedicalDirector was Dr Chin’s go-to solution that enabled him to access all his patient records while on the move, while streamlining his day-to-day tasks and organising his busy schedule.

And with real-time prescription monitoring platform eRx fully integrated into Helix, Dr Chin can easily manage his electronic scripts wherever he is, which is particularly important for his patients suffering from ADHD.

“Both the pathology and prescription function are very helpful as part of the integrated Helix solution,” he added. “I can easily prescribe, which is then integrated into the patient’s clinical notes via Helix. It is also very easy for me to generate pathology requests. Overall, I would recommend Helix to healthcare professionals as it allows access to patient’s clinical records no matter where you are.”

A pathway to RACGP accreditation

Prof (Dr) Martin Samy and his daughter, Dr Christabel Samy, moved to Australia from the UK with a vision to deliver care to those that need it most, when and where they need it. Their practice, Samy Medical Group, offers care to patients in nursing homes, aged care facilities and eventually homeless shelters.

Helix, a cloud-based clinical software solution from MedicalDirector, allows Samy Medical Group’s doctors to deliver care to patients, wherever they are. And the results speak for themselves. Samy Medical Group has successfully obtained RACGP accreditation, after demonstrating how Helix has helped facilitate the practice’s ability to enable better patient outcomes.

“In an accreditation process, there is emphasis on the efficacy of the IT infrastructure behind the medical practice, when the RACGP came to us, they simply could not fault Helix,” Prof Samy explained. “The practice runs on home-based computers which has relatively low memory. This is because I have everything on the cloud such as Office 365, OneDrive, Dropbox and Helix that controls patient management, from the time patients book an appointment, to the time they recover.”

One of the key factors to achieving accreditation was demonstrating sound clinical risk management, which Prof Samy’s daughter, the principal GP, Dr Christabel Samy was able to demonstrate using Helix.

“Helix leverages the power of SNOMED, which means you can easily write and record clinical notes,” Prof Samy said. “However, what we also wanted was the ability for the software to help generate real-time reporting and excel files, to help us analyse the various health conditions and generate reports according to various data sets like age, gender, demographics, COPDs, CPDs, allergies.”

Prof Samy also highlighted during the accreditation process that Helix runs securely on the robust Microsoft Azure platform which meets international standards in privacy and security.

“And when we talked about updates, I highlighted it’s all done automatically and seamlessly without requiring an IT person to come in,” he said.

Additional Factors Motivating Doctors to Opt for Cloud Health Software

Here are some other keyways cloud technology can help busy practitioners save time and ease the stresses of the daily grind.

Interoperability and collaboration

Cloud-based solutions support collaboration in healthcare, allowing multiple stakeholders to share information securely and seamlessly across the network.

MedicalDirector’s recent whitepaper, Interoperability in healthcare: Synergising an industry, found a significant benefit of moving towards cloud-based solutions is that it supports more interoperable systems, which in turn benefits more efficient, coordinated care and improved patient outcomes.

More flexible, patient-centric care

MedicalDirector’s report further revealed cloud-based health solutions provides the digital infrastructure needed to effectively coordinate more flexible patient-centric care. When it comes to the cloud, 64% of respondents admitted they consider flexibility to be the main benefit of using a cloud-based systems, enhancing the workflow capabilities of care teams and improving the patient experience.

Better patient outcomes

Moving away from legacy, on-premises solutions and into the cloud will enable hospitals and health systems to improve workflow and efficiency, which will in turn enable healthcare providers to focus more closely on providing value-based care, improve the patient experience and achieve better clinical and hospital outcomes.

The efficient choice for starting a practice

One practice getting it right is We Care Medical Centre in Western Sydney, which implemented cloud-based clinical management platform Helix from the very beginning.

Helix, an innovative cloud-based solution by MedicalDirector, was the ideal choice for We Care Medical Centre as it offered flexibility, was easy to implement, navigate and provided functionality that the practice required while setting up.

“Because it is available on any device and anywhere, it actually really benefits me because I’m working in different places and it is definitely good for the day-to-day workflow of our practice. It is easy to use, easy to navigate, and you can access it anywhere. Plus it’s great to have everything in one place,” Dr. Swaminathan said.