Scanner helps dental surgery center adopt EHRs

The Plustek MobileOffice AD450 scanner has helped a California pediatric sedation dental office transition to an electronic health record (EHR) system and streamline operations in the process.

Hapy Bear Surgery Center is a pediatric sedation dental office in Tulare, CA, that provides general anesthesia to dental patients referred to them by more than 200 dental offices. Hapy Bear has been serving patients since 1997. In 2010, they moved into a new, state-of-the-art surgery center that provides a spacious, comfortable, kid-friendly environment.

Pediatric sedation dentistry in a surgery center requires more paperwork than a normal dental office because treatment is both dental and medical, and Jeremy Pierson, chief information officer at Hapy Bear, started looking for ways to better handle the paperwork and become compliant with EHR requirements stipulated in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. He ultimately decided to purchase four Plustek MobileOffice AD450 scanners to aid in and support the transition to EHRs, according to the company.

The Hapy Bear facility now has 100% electronic patient records. Before each procedure at Hapy Bear, pediatric patients and their parents are taken to a consultation room where they speak with the dentist and anesthesiologist, ask questions about the procedure, and complete and sign necessary paperwork. Since a signed copy of all the paperwork must be sent home with the patient/parent, a staff member used to have to run to the photocopier to make a copy for the parent. Now with the AD450 scanners in each room, identification cards, medical insurance cards, and all paperwork are instantaneously scanned into Hapy Bear's computer system and handed directly back to the parent.

Plustek's TWAIN driver was another selling point for the MobileOffice AD450. The primary computer program that Hapy Bear uses is Dentrix, and it required a TWAIN scanner to interface directly into its document center. It only requires one click on the computer screen for the entire scanning process to complete, eliminating the need for extensive staff training.

By becoming fully HER-compliant, Hapy Bear Surgery Center became eligible for the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Program, providing $21,500 per doctor to help cover the costs of converting to the EHR system. They will also be eligible to receive $8,500 per doctor each year for the next five years as they show meaningful use of their EHR system.