Practice Partner® Instant Medical History™ Product Bulletin

Instant Medical History™ is a patient interview software application created by Primetime Medical Software, Inc. Practice Partner has partnered with Primetime to integrate the ASP (web-based) version of Instant Medical History with Practice Partner Patient Records. Beginning with Patient Records 8.2, practices are able to easily import patient interview responses from Instant Medical History into the patient’s chart in Patient Records.

How does Instant Medical History work?
Instant Medical History gathers complete present illness, review of system and medical history information before the encounter. The patient uses Instant Medical History software to respond to multiple choice questions that branch based on his or her answers. In the background, the software translates the interview summary into clinical terminology and organizes the responses according to the pertinent organ system. Instant Medical History summarizes this information, which Practice Partner users can then import into Patient Records to begin a progress note for the patient visit.

What are the benefits of Instant Medical History?

• Reduces clinician data entry
• Provides more accurate and complete information
• Makes the time spent in the encounter more efficient
• Focuses the patient and the physician on the health concerns presented at the start of the encounter
• Improves documentation for coding and audits
• Produces additional revenue from treating more patients
• Improves patient retention and satisfaction

How do I provide patients with access to Instant Medical History?
There are two typical implementation methods for the web-based version of Instant Medical History:

1. Waiting room kiosk. Many practices set up a computer in the waiting room for patients to use Instant Medical History. The average interview takes less than 15 minutes.
2. From home. Practices can also deploy Instant Medical History via their web site. The patient visits the practice web site, clicks on a link that connects them with Instant Medical History, and completes his or her questionnaire prior to arriving at the office for the visit.

What is the workflow for using Instant Medical History with Practice Partner?
Instant Medical History first prompts the patient for basic demographic information as well as the reason for their visit.

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Based on the reason for the visit, Instant Medical History then displays the pertinent questionnaire. As the patient responds to questions, Instant Medical History displays additional multiple-choice questions based on the patient responses.

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Once the patient completes their questionnaire(s), Instant Medical History encrypts this information, saving it as a file to a fully secure server hosted by Primetime. The practice then uses an encryption key to connect and login to the server. The practice can securely download their files to the local network. Primetime automatically decrypts these local files and destroys the copies on the server.



Using text data loader, the practice imports the text or rich text format (rtf) file. This will load the information into Patient Records and begin a progress note in the appropriate patient chart. When the physician opens the chart in Patient Records before the exam, there will be a shared progress note with all of the information entered by the patient in Instant Medical History, including appropriate E&M coding labels. The physician then completes his or her evaluation and signs the note. Below is a sample progress note populated with information entered by a patient using Instant Medical History.

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For what cases is Instant Medical History useful?
Instant Medical History is useful in 98% of the chief complaints seen by a family physician or internist. The system includes a relevant questionnaire for 80-90% of the complaints seen by specialists. Primetime is also able to add questionnaires very quickly for patient complaints that are not currently in the system. The questionnaires are designed to be very easy for any patient to use, regardless of computer skills or knowledge. In fact, research studies performed at the University of Wisconsin and Louisiana State University have shown that about 85% of patients are able to successfully use Instant Medical History.

Can I customize the questionnaires?
Instant Medical History includes level of detail settings to determine the number of questions and the amount of information collected. These settings are specific to the types of questions, allowing practices to separately choose the level of detail for family history, history of present illness, review of systems, etc. Primetime will also create custom questionnaires upon request, at an additional expense.

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What is the pricing for Instant Medical History?
The subscription price for Instant Medical History is $800 per provider. A provider is defined as any clinician billing out under his or her own name. This subscription includes product updates and ongoing technical support.

Can Instant Medical History improve my bottom line?
Yes, there are two primary ways that Instant Medical History can increase revenue.

1. Documentation Savings – When patients use Instant Medical History to enter their medical history, the subjective portion of the documentation is essentially completed before the exam begins. Because much of the visit is often spent on the history, this saves valuable time. Saving 4 minutes of documentation time per patient multiplied by 25 patients per day results in a savings of 100 minutes. At 15 minutes per appointment, this would increase productivity by 6 visits per day. Assuming a 4-day physician week, this totals 24 visits per week, or approximately 100 extra visits per month. At $50 per visit, the net revenue increase would be $5,000 per month per physician.
2. Reduction in Under-Coding – Instant Medical History helps produce more complete documentation of the patient visit, thereby reducing the tendency to under-code the patient visit. An under-coded encounter costs approximately $10 per visit. Recovering this lost revenue would result in a revenue increase of $250 per physician per day, or $1,000 per 4-day week, or $4,000 per physician per month.

Who is responsible for the setup, installation, and user training of Instant Medical History?
Primetime Medical Software will provide all setup, installation, and training services.

When a Practice Partner customer requests Instant Medical History, Practice Partner will send a quote and an end-user licensing agreement. Once the practice remits payment and Practice Partner processes the order, Practice Partner will inform Primetime of the new order. Primetime will then contact the practice to begin the setup and installation process. For new Practice Partner clients, this will be coordinated with the overall Practice Partner implementation project.

Who provides ongoing support for Instant Medical History?
Primetime will provide technical support services to Practice Partner customers for all Instant Medical History specific questions. Practice Partner technical support will refer all Instant Medical History questions to Primetime. During the setup and installation process, Primetime will provide the practice with the necessary technical support contact information.

If a practice is having difficulty using text data loader to import the Instant Medical History file into Patient Records, then Practice Partner will provide support assistance.

What are the requirements for Instant Medical History?
A practice must be using Practice Partner Patient Records 8.2 or higher in order to use Instant Medical History. Use of the ASP version of Instant Medical History also requires an Internet connection at the location of the patient interview. For example, if a practice sets up an Instant Medical History kiosk in the waiting room, then that workstation must have a constant Internet connection. If a patient is completing their questionnaire from home via the practice web site, he or she will need access to an Internet connection.

What if I have additional questions about Instant Medical History?
To learn more about Instant Medical History, contact your McKesson account manager or call 818.942.0123.