Racine doctor launches new firm aimed at bringing technology to physicians’ offices
A new physician-owned services company was publicly launched at the Independent Physician Network (IPN) strategic planning meeting on March 2 in Kohler.
The company is called poITs, which stands for "Physician-Owned Information Technology Solutions."
Dr. Tim Zelko, founder of Racine-based poITs and a former private practice physician himself, says he came up with the idea after years of frustration with outside vendors and bureaucracy.
"As a practicing physician for more than 16 years, I experienced, first-hand, managed-care’s intrusion on my practice, the bureaucracy of medicine and the continued reduction in reimbursement," says Zelko. "I was tired of letting this problem fester, so I started a company to improve the situation. IPN’s annual meeting was a great place to begin letting physicians know about our new service offering."
At its onset, poITs (www.poITs.com) is focused on "increasing the satisfaction of private practice physicians by dramatically improving their efficiency and productivity through the effective use of information technology," the company said in statement on its founding.
"We expect that poITs will not only dramatically simplify the process and lower the net cost of implementing information technology in a physician’s office, but it will also allow physicians to practice more efficient and profitable medicine, empower them to remain independent and, most importantly, give their patients the highest quality of medical care available," says Zelko.
Currently, less than 5% of physicians nationwide use information technology in the clinical aspects of their practice, according to Zelko. That’s not due to the unavailability of products but, rather, because those products have not been appropriately packaged for the private-practice physician, he said.
Zelko said poITs plans to change that situation "by focusing solely on minimizing the hassles, complexities and costs associated with the implementation and on-going care of an information technology system in a independent physician’s office."
The participants in the poITs network will, at all times, own 50% of the company, and will therefore share in whatever cash distributions the company may have at the end of each year, Zelko said. That will reduce the net costs to poITs customers, but will also open up the possibilities of new sources of revenue that most physicians have not had access to in the past, he said.
March 15, 2002 Small Business Times, Milwaukee
