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Paperless
Practice
As
firm keeps techno-fitting doctors offices, new building will embody
concept of Info Park
By
Joe Walker jwalker@paducahsun.com
-- 270.575.8650
Ulrich
Medical Concepts will break ground at 4 p.m. Wednesday in the Paducah
Information Age Park for a new "campus-like" headquarters
reflecting the firm's success in helping doctors develop paperless
practices.
Having
outgrown offices in the info park Resource Center, Ulrich also has
donated $40,000 in Team Charts Concept software and training for
the West Kentucky Community and Technical College fall curriculum
for certified medical assistants. Ulrich President Dan Jarrett is
working to expand the training to community-technical colleges statewide.
"They
deserve to have that kind of technology because that's the way medicine
is going," Jarrett said. "We're changing the way things
have been done since Abraham Lincoln's day."
The
new building will cost at least $700,000 and cover about 10,000
square feet, enough for the staff to double to 25 or 30 professional
jobs by next fall, Jarrett said. The headquarters will go up on
four acres at the corner of McCracken Boulevard and Ballard Circle
north of LYNX Services.
"We
plan to build a lake and we want a campus-like environment that
promotes vision," Jarrett said. "We want this to represent
what this park was originally designed to do. We're implementing
new technology."
Despite
having complex businesses, doctors generally have operated with
paper charts since the 19th century, he said. Focusing on rural
doctors, Ulrich offers computerization and consulting to track patient
risk factors, lessen office waiting, analyze cash flow, improve
insurance billing and cut down on mistakes.
Medical
errors, such as misplaced charts and lost lab reports that result
in expensive diagnostic testing, cost the nation about $30 billion
annually. Long hours, rising malpractice insurance and other expenses,
and shrinking Medicaid-Medicare reimbursements have caused a drastic
drop in the number of family practitioners across the country, Jarrett
said.
"They
are passionate about what they do, but are overwhelmed and just
don't have the tools," he said. "If they can't be profitable,
they're not going to be in business."
Ulrich
programs are being used by about 280 doctors and staffers in Kentucky
and Ohio. Sales in 2004 are projected at nearly $3 million, up from
$30,000 in 2001, the first year of commercial operation. That fall,
the firm moved from eastern Kentucky to the Information Park as
Jarrett, who helped develop Midwest Aviation, and Dippin' Dots founder
Curt Jones became part owners.
Dr.
Paul McInturff, a vice president of the college on Blandville Road,
said Jarrett donated software and training that wasn't affordable
because of budget cuts. There are plans to expand the software into
other medical training programs.
"Dan
put his money where his mouth is," McInturff said. "What
education needs is active partnerships with business and industry.
If we want our students to go out and be able to do state-of-the-art
work, then we've got to have state-of-the art software and equipment."
The
training will help students find jobs, he said, predicting it will
be standard in community-technical colleges statewide in the near
future. "Most educators should jump at an opportunity like
this."
Jarrett
also is talking with colleges in eastern Kentucky where the company
was founded by Dr. Dennis Ulrich, a Laurel County family practitioner,
and his cousin, Burton Ulrich, a Paducah computer programmer. The
move to the information park took advantage of Paducah's standing
as a regional medical center.
Jarrett
said Mayor Bill Paxton, Judge-Executive Danny Orazine and Greater
Paducah Economic Development Council President Wayne Sterling were
instrumental in getting land set aside for the new headquarters.
He hopes the project will "send a message" to other high-tech
firms that the park - long criticized for lack of development -
is growing.
"We
haven't re-invented the wheel here. We surely haven't won the lottery,"
Jarrett said. "We're building the business one doctor at a
time."
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