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PETER MONSEES/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Michael Fishweicher at a Saddle Brook seminar explaining how MicroWize Technology can create a paperless office system.

End of the paper trail

Doctors put patient records on computers
By DUNSTAN PRIAL
STAFF WRITER

Dr. James Mauti's medical office is notable for its spare elegance.
Handsome leather chairs and a flatscreen television greet patients in the sunny waiting room. Inside the doctor's personal office is a large wooden desk
adorned with a telephone, a laptop computer and another portable computer
called a tablet On his wall is a second flatscreen television.
There is no clutter. There are no pens,
no {>f!Dcils, no manila folders and no filing
cabinets.
In fact, Mauti's office is virtually paper-

less thanks to a decision he made a year

and a half ago when he opened his sports
medicine practice in Springfield.
The doctor, who completed his residen
cy at St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center
in Paterson, is at the forefront of a national movement toward transferring patients'
medical files from paper to computers.
The shift to electronic medical records,
which most doctors acknowledge is inevitable, raises a number of thorny issues,
however.
Privacy issues are of major concern to
many, as are the costs of converting old paper records - $20,000 to $30,000 by most
estimates.
Also of concern is the time and effort it

will take to transfer all that information

into computers. And many doctors reared
on pen and paper are reluctant to embrace
the difficult transition to an electronic filing system.
Dr. Adam Lesiczka, a general practitioner in Wallington, said he was leery of
the projected two-year transition. Nevertheless, he said he's leaning toward making
the switch.
"This is the wave of the future, and at
some point it will probably be required.
Writing notes for seven or eight hours a
day is too much, and this is a way to stay
ahead of the game," said Lesiczka, who attended a recent training seminar sponsored
See DOCTORS Page B-2

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sack company that helps doctors

switch to a paperless office system.
The most proniinent North Jersey
company in the business of electronic
medical records is Elmwood Parkbased Erndeon (fonnerly WebMD),
which has a subsidiary that helps doctors maintain everything from patient
data to billing records. Emdeon's market cap is roughly $3 billion.
For patients who want to consolidate their medical records in a single
electronic file, a San' Francisco-based
company called Medero Inc., which is
affiliated with the American Medical
Association, has created a Web site at
ihealthrecord.org where families can
organize and maintain their health
records online.
The files are accessed using a password, which can be provided to doctors the family chooses.
Supporters of the shift to electronic
medical records run the political
gamut, from former Republican
Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich
to New York's Democratic Sen.
Hillary Rodham Clinton.
President Bush has called for
the adoption of standards for electronic health records within the. next

10 years.
Mauti didn't need to be prompted
by the government
"I went soup to nuts. I did it all," he
said. "Everything in medicine is documentation, and this is the new wave of
medicine."
Using software called MediNotes, a
Microsoft Windows-based program,
patients can provide their medical histoiy and fill out insurance forms from
their homes by logging on to Mauti's
Website.
That saves time during office visits,
Mauti explained, because the forms
are already filled out and Mauti is able
to review them before patients arrive.
Everything goes into the electronic
medical file - the date and reason for
the visit, prescnbed medications, allergies, past illnesses. Mauti even includes
a photo of the patient so he can match
a face to the name when the patient
arranges a follow-up visit.
Mauti uses Medisoft, another Wmdows-based software program compatible with MediNotes, to maintain
bis billin files.
Seate~at his desk, he can flip open
his laptop and review the files of all his
patients on the flat screen on the wall.
While examining patients, he carries
the tablet, a 10-incb by 12-inch device
into which he enters new information
obtained during the examination.
Even Mauti's blood pressure and
electrocardiogram machines are wired

into bis computer system.

Everything is stored on bis network
server located on the top shelf of the
closet in his office. Naturally, everything is backed up on other systems in
case of an emergency. Moreover, Mau,.
ti said his entire property is surrounded by a double firewall to keep out
hackers.
The whole system - the computers,
pririters, flat screens and accessories, as
well as installation and training - ran
Mauti about $50,000.
Mauti purchased his software system and received his training from
MicroWize. The doctor said he pays
M:icroWize $2,000 to $3,000 a year for
technical support, software upgrades
and additional training.
''I kind of went above ~d beyond

what might really have been needed,"

Mauti said. "But I wanted the system
to be as effective as possible."
The doctor said his electronic system saves him the cost of three or four
additional administrative employees,
each of whom would receive a salary
of between $30,000 and $40,000.
And those figures don't take into account the amount of time he said his
electronic system saves him. "You
can't put a price tag on time," he noted.
E-mail: prial@northjersey.com