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Versatile EHR software streamlines data collection and review for Chad Fleming, OD, and his colleagues at Wichita Optometry.
Chad Fleming, OD, FAAO

Wichita Optometry
Wichita, Kan.

Chad Fleming, OD, has been in practice for 15 years, and has seen firsthand the changes in practice management for optometrists. After his introduction to the optical business as an optician, Fleming subsequently attended Northeastern State University-Oklahoma College of Optometry, where he graduated summa cum laude in 2002.

He is a member of the American Optometric Association (AOA), Kansas Optometric Association, and a fellow of the American Academy of Optometry (AAO). Fleming’s practice, Wichita Optometry, has two locations with four doctors. He and Jeff Yarrow, OD, are the co-owners of the practice.

Business for optometrists is a challenge today, Fleming said. “We’re getting our margins cut so much on the business side,” he said. The challenge now is to find ways to use some of the new technologies available that are designed to bring efficiency to an OD’s practice even as various restrictions on pricing come into play.

“We’re one of the few industries where we are topped out on what we can maximize from a profit-margin [standpoint] because almost everything is price-set for us by insurance companies or by mandated discounts,” he noted.

Wichita Optometry has just finished its third year using RevolutionEHR, a cloud-based Electronic Heath Record (EHR) software for optometry. Because it is a cloud-based system, Fleming said, he has been able to eliminate what was an expensive network within the offices. “We no longer run with servers, and I have only minimal IT that I need,” he added, which has resulted in notable cost reductions.

One of the features of the RevolutionEHR system is that it is designed to free the optometrist and staff from wrestling with complex computer systems, thus permitting the staff to spend more time caring for patients, according to Fleming.

He also noted that with the RevolutionEHR system “everything else circles around that [system], such as the way we move documents and the way we move data around the office.” It also enabled the practice to eliminate its “hard” fax line and discontinue using the local phone company in business operations. “The office now runs as one office with VOIP (voice over Internet protocol), and all the things that allow us as an office and a business to function mobile-ly.”

RevolutionEHR also enables some flexibility in scheduling of employees. For example, Fleming noted, that if the office scheduler needs to work at home for family or other reasons, “you can do that with the type of set-up that we created.” Optometry is just beginning to incorporate these options, he said, which helps practices “attract good employees and to continue to move the business forward,” he added.

Among key features, RevolutionEHR cites its “simplicity of one” operating principle, which is built around the core idea of bringing an effective and efficient software solution to each practice that “seamlessly integrates with a variety of partner solutions and enables a growing suite of ECP business services” for the practice.

Fleming agreed that the RevolutionEHR system has been a key piece in permitting the practice to link multiple offices together and to “mobilize” doctors and streamline the ways in which they securely interact with their patient charts and patient data, and still remain HIPAA compliant.

He also noted that RevolutionEHR continually provides updates to its application program interface (APIs) to ensure that the system can “communicate seamlessly with third-party software that is within our industry.”

He concluded, “This makes RevolutionEHR extremely user-friendly, [and] if they are user-friendly for us, then they are giving the patient a much better experience.”