Martin's Point Health Care Launches Three High-tech Initiatives

Not-for-profit health-care provider continues to tap technology to enhance productivity, services

Martin's Point Health Care, already well known for its innovative use of technology, has launched three high-tech initiatives to spur productivity, increase efficiency and enhance patient services.

The new initiatives range from the overhaul of the Martin's Point financial-management system and the launch of a new intranet site to the revamp of the award-winning Patient's Personal Points program, an Internet-based system that allows patients to communicate online with their doctors.

"These are the latest examples of our ongoing commitment to make the best use of technology to meet patients' needs," said Dr. David Howes, M.D., president and chief medical officer at Martin's Point, the state's largest not-for-profit primary care practice. "It's all part of our mission to provide accurate, up-to-date information that helps people make informed decisions about their health care."

The upgrade of the financial-management system already is reaping big dividends. Implemented late last year, the new system uses software provided by SRC Software in Portland, Ore. It has allowed Martin's Point to scrap an inefficient, paper-intensive budgeting system, freeing up more than 40 department heads and medical professionals to spend more time on patients and services rather than spread sheets. Detailed, easy-to-use tools allow users to break down line items to determine, for example, why costs rose in a particular category compared with the previous year.

The revamp of the intranet, meanwhile, has allowed Martin's Point to respond more effectively to comments from patients. Under the old system, staff members documented comments by hand on paper forms, which were copied and distributed to all four Martin's Point locations in Maine and New Hampshire. And if a form needed to be changed, it had to be reprinted again and redistributed.

Now, thanks to Martin's Point's new intranet site - a confidential database available to a limited number of personnel - staff members can access or update information on a computer screen. Moreover, hundreds of other forms, related to everything from human resources to payroll, are now accessible electronically.

"The intranet provides our employees with efficient, timely and consistent information 24 hours a day," Howes said.

The latest high-tech initiative at Martin's Point is the renovation of Patient's Personal Points, an interactive, Internet-based system that allows patients communicate via secure server with their doctors to schedule appointments, ask medical questions and obtain prescription renewals. The system, implemented in 1999 and used by more than 5,000 patients, will be suspended in July and replaced within the next 12 to 18 months by a more comprehensive program.

One of the primary reasons for the change is that the current vendor, iMcKesson, recently opted to dissolve its practice-management business and concentrate instead on software for large hospital systems. In addition, surveys have shown that Martin's Point patients - many of whom are sophisticated Internet users - want more direct access to information such as lab results, automatic payments, enrollment systems, physician selection and pharmacy issues.

"While it was initially discouraging to learn that iMcKesson is no longer supporting enhancements, we are excited about the future and look forward to an expanded program that will be even more customized to meet the needs of our patients," said Douglas Smith, the chief operating officer at Martin's Point. "All told, we're going to improve an already impressive system."

Established in 1981, Martin's Point is a not-for-profit health care provider with facilities in Portland, Brunswick and Windham, Maine, and in Portsmouth, N.H. Martin's Point has a staff of more than 300 health care professionals and serves 54,000 patients - including military retirees and dependents of active military personnel - under all major health plans.

Martin's Point serves patients in the areas of family practice, internal medicine, pediatrics, surgery, radiology, cardiology, and mammography, as well as other fields. For additional information on Martin's Point Health Care, visit online at www.martinspoint.org.

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