HEBER SPRINGS, AR – Sometimes what may seem like a small expense – $3,700 – can make all the difference to patients in need of care, but with no insurance or means to get it.

Case in point is the document management module that the Christian Health Center installed about a year ago to augment its MedServices electronic medical record system, developed by Cleveland, Tenn.-based DataNet Solutions specifically for free clinics.

 CNG-Safe, the document management piece from Madison, Ala.-based Cabinet NG, integrates with the MedServices EMR to make certain facets of running a free clinic like the Christian Health Center vastly more efficient for both volunteers and patients, says William M. Wells, MD, one of three physicians who help keep the clinic open.

 The Christian Health Center is one of about 25 similar clinics sprinkled around Arkansas that provide free care for patients who have no health insurance and whose household income is 200 percent below the federal poverty level. For a family of four, that’s $44,000; for a family of two, it’s $29,140.

It operates in Harbor Springs, a rural community of about 12,000 people in the middle of the state, 70 miles north of Little Rock, drawing its nearly 800 patients from a wide swath of land in the lower central part of Arkansas. The clinic has no geographic restrictions.

 Besides its three physicians, Christian Health also has three nurse practitioners, half a dozen volunteer pharmacists and 60 to 80 other volunteers. It’s open one or two days a week, and that’s all it can manage with the volunteers it has. Most of the volunteers have regular jobs, so the clinic is open at night – often from 6 p.m. to midnight.

 “That’s one reason it’s hard to recruit,” said Wells. “Those are pretty bad hours.”

 The volunteers have always been a blessing, but now Wells counts technology among the clinic’s blessings, too.

 He’s grateful for the electronic medical record installed back in 2007, and now happy to be kicking it up a notch with CNG-Safe.

 “One of the things that we are eternally working on in our business is maintaining patient eligibility for these free medications,” said Wells. “That’s an annual renewal so that we have to document the patients’ initial eligibility and then keep up with when that eligibility expires and then record new documentation.”

 The document management technology automates the tracking process and provides alerts when it’s time to renew patient eligibility.

“That way we can keep current on their medications, and we don’t have trouble with them falling through the cracks so much,” Wells said.

Brady Martin, who helped integrate the document management software for DataNet Solutions, said there were some “road bumps’ over the few days it took to install the new software, “but everything has been fine ever since.” 

James True, vice president of development for Cabinet NG, touts the document management software’s flexibility.

Some systems you have to change the way you run your practice to be able to use the system,” he said. “Our system adapts to the way they run their practice.”

 “What’s nice with the solution that Dr. Wells is using at Christian Health,” he added, “is it’s integrated with what they’re already using from their practice management system. When they’re in a patient record in that system, all they have to do is click a button and they pull up that patient’s chart out of our system.”

 The technology will also help with the audits by pharmaceutical companies that provide free medications – sometimes in bulk directly to the clinic.

 “Of course the drug company wants to know how we’re using their medicine,” Wells said. “So not only do we have to send them a report every month, but once a year they come in and do an audit to see if we’re actually doing what we say we’re doing.”

 Previously the auditors reviewed 100 charts, going through them one by one, flipping pages. “Of course, we’re looking over their shoulder and trying to be sure that they’re flipping the right pages,” Wells said. “I think finding it electronically is going to be a lot easier.”

 Wells expects the document management system – $2,900 for the software and $800 for two scanners – will pay for itself. “It’s not cheap, and it may take a while to realize a return on the investment,” he said, “but I really expect to do that.”