As a relatively large practice including 145MDs, 20 midlevel clinicians, and 8 locations we simply could not be what we are without the use of technology. That kind of size and diversity of location cannot function in an accurate and safe way for patients without technology. It has enabled both the size and quality of our group. I liken it to thinking whether you could get through the day's work without getting out of bed.
We have doctors that work out of 3 offices. They couldn't reliably remember what they did yesterday without the kind of technology we employ. Our labs, technicians, x-rays and everything else used in a practice are housed within our centralized computer system, and can be accessed from any location. I can't imagine working as we do without an integrated system. We have one mainframe that houses all our practice management and data. That means that all the data is where it should be when it should be. All in one box.
Both Electronic Medical Records and our practice management system are critical to our success. We purchased both from a single vendor and they are stored on a single server. So part of our success is the combination of systems from a single vendor on a single mainframe.
One reason healthcare practices have had difficulty is they chose different prods from a variety of vendors and ended up in a finger pointing match. It's just like buying a BMW engine, a body from Mercedes, and transmission from Hurst. Each may be a best of breed product, but the work involved in making them work together outweighs the individual benefits. We see this being done with information technology and have avoided it. Our success is due in large part to that approach.
Note: Dr. Levy's practice is using the Misys suite of products.
Dr. Abe Levy graduated from the University of Tennessee Medical School in 1966. He did his Internal Medicine Internship and Residency at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, and went on to the University of Rochester as a Fellow in Psychosomatic Medicine.
He remained there in 1972-73 as an Assistant Professor of Medicine participating in the formation of the Internal Medicine Group at the UofR for teaching medical students and house staff about out-patient medicine.
In 1974, he joined the Mount Kisco Medical Group and practiced for 22 years as a general Internist. He became the physician leader in medical information technology and initiated the use of PC’s by physicians, e-mail for professional purposes, a laboratory information system, electronic coding software, and in 1998, the Group’s first electronic medical record.
For the last several years, he has been Co-chair of the IT Steering Committee at Northern Westchester Hospital and a member of the IT Steering Committee of the Stellaris hospital network.
In 1998, he was appointed Director of Quality Assurance and Utilization Review at MKMG. The following year, he was named Medical Director. In that capacity, he additionally implemented a Patient Safety program and led the recruitment of physicians while the Group doubled in size to its current 165 health care professionals. Another focus of his efforts has been patient courtesy and service as well as physician courtesy to patients and respect for employees. In 2004, he was named Chief Quality Officer in addition to his previous roles at MKMG.
Dr. Levy is currently the President of the Westchester Academy of Medicine and a member of the Board of Directors of the Westchester County Medical Society.
