How to Transform Ophthalmic Care with Mobile Solutions

Mobile technology can make ophthalmic workflows easier and more efficient in many ways. NextGen® Mobile offers greater convenience and flexibility as you prepare to treat patients. You can do much of your preparatory work and documentation inside or outside the office. No more hours being locked in an old-school EHR documentation routine.

With this mobile solution, you have a user-friendly cloud-based platform that provides a real-time connection to the EHR. From the palm of your hand, you launch into the mobile application using a four-digit PIN, touch ID, or face ID. Once in the mobile app, you’ll see the Hub that enables quick and easy access to review and sign off on any provider approval queue (PAQ) items, documents, images, and lab results. Whatever is funneled to you to review and sign off, it’s there on your phone.

To help map out your day, you can create tasks and work on existing ones sent by your support staff. Clinicians find this is an effective way to streamline communications with their team members. With your complete schedule on your phone, you can review each appointment and get a real-time connection to the EHR—examine surgical history, medications, documents, images, chart notes, orders, and anything that's been indexed into the patient’s record. This feature makes it easier for ophthalmologists on the go who need to do chart prep or call patients.

Take a picture

With an adaptor, you can use your phone to take a picture of the front surface of the eye for oculoplastic procedures or the back of the eye and make annotations to indicate a corneal ulcer, age-related macular degeneration, or a cataract. A picture can be shown to the patient and then seamlessly dropped into their chart—even though you are remote from your EHR system.

Streamlined signature capture

A scanning functionality enables you to capture images of signed paper documents. You can share documents, stream them into the patient’s record, or task them to your  support staff—another way to streamline communication and optimize workflow. You can print a paper form, have the patient sign it with a pen, and scan it with your phone.  This functionality is especially useful for patients uncomfortable with electronic signatures.

Maintain the referral connection

One particular pearl of efficiency: you can handily close the referral loop. It’s important to communicate closely with referring providers, whether that means sending a thank you letter or providing an update on the patient’s treatment. With the referral technology within NextGen Mobile, you can quickly dictate a referral note, have it automatically transcribed, and securely send it to the referring provider.

Capture clinical conversations with ease

When on-call or out-of-town, instant access to patient messages saves time by allowing you to address their concerns quickly from your phone. You can review recent chart notes and current medications without having to return to the office or log into a desktop or laptop computer before calling them back. During the conversation with the patient, you can tap record to create a phone note that goes directly into the EHR.

How does NextGen Mobile benefit patients?

The quicker you can respond to patients’ needs, the more satisfying interactions with your practice will be for patients. NextGen Mobile gives you easy access to patients’ information wherever you may be—in the office, at home, or on the go. You don’t have to go into the office or pull out your laptop to review their records—all of this promotes more satisfying physician-patient encounters.

If you engage with a patient on your phone, the conversation may be more productive if you use NextGen Mobile. Your answers to patient questions may be more informed and accurate because they are based on records accessible on your phone. A productive, 15-minute talk can give the patient more peace of mind compared to waiting for days until the next available in-office appointment.

This is the path to better ophthalmic care. Click here to learn more about our mobile solutions. Check out Going Mobile: A Guide to Best Practices to leverage this solution to reduce physician burnout.

Kristi Bolinger

Director, Specialty Solutions, Ophthalmology