Electronic Medical Records (EMR) Network Setup

Dean Carr, MBA, CMPE, Administrator of Associated Anesthesiologists

“I’ve personally worked with SIG for something like ten years. Someone recommended them to us, we had them come out and do a few things, and within a short period of time, we let them take care of all the IT needs we had.

“SIG has made my job immensely easier. They’ve helped us find solutions to issues and problems, increase productivity, increase communications, and make things work.”

Finding cost-effective IT solutions

“We had one urgent care center, built two more and needed to establish a network to swing medical records, EKGs, and charts back and forth. We needed to be able to view those at any location, so we needed multiple servers and a wide area network.

“When we first started out, we had to have a way to be able to review charts and medical records from one facility to the next, on a real-time basis.

“Up to that point, we were at a loss of how to do that without implementing what’s called an Electronic Medical Records (EMR). A real honest-to-goodness EMR is a very expensive big deal. We didn’t want to put the money into a true EMR, but we needed an intermediate solution: something doable, but a whole lot less expensive.

“SIG came up with a document imaging system that met our needs. They came up with a solution where we could scan the chart and put it into the document imaging system so a doctor at another facility could instantly read the chart.”

Quick-response IT services around the clock

“We are a 7-day-a-week operation, running from 7:00 in the morning to 10:00 at night. If something went down, and it was a patient’s medical record on the line, I had to have quick and ready turnaround. If a doctor goes in to see a patient and all of a sudden the medical record is unavailable because the computer is down or the server isn’t working, that’s a big deal.

“SIG was ready to be right there to take care of us, nights, weekends, or Sunday mornings. They’re just very reliable, with rapid response — to me that means so much. Customer service means so much, especially when you come in and have to run payroll that morning, and all of a sudden, the server won’t fire up, you can’t connect to the Internet, or any number of issues that are critical.

“I can call and have help from SIG, usually within an hour. That’s so good. Even if they’re on another job, they’ll stop long enough to remote in and sometimes they can fix it in just a few minutes. And if they can’t fix it remotely, they’ll get someone on site real quick.”

IT services for problems big and small

“If you have a number of servers, there’s always something going on. Sometimes the power supply needs replacing, or there’s always some employee that manages to download a virus. SIG is good about coming in and cleaning that stuff up.

“I’m with another group now, but we still use SIG. They’re good people, they’re intelligent, and they take good care of us. They’re just a fine group of folks; very knowledgeable, able to recommend solutions, and they can do it all from the big things to the little things.

“They’re wonderful people; I couldn’t say enough good about them. I like working with them, and highly recommend them.”

— Dean Carr, MBA, CMPE, Administrator of Associated Anesthesiologists