Tanya Altmann, M.D.

Tanya Altmann, M.D. of Calabasas Pediatrics in California talks about how PCC has worked for her practice, specifically on the topics of:

Choosing PCC
On-site training
Patient Portal
PCC Experience
Pocket PCC
Support

I'm Dr. Tanya Altmann, the founder of Calabasas Pediatrics. So, I trained at UCLA in Pediatrics and then I practiced for 15 years in a very busy practice with seven doctors. I had my third son about four years ago, so I left that practice, took six months off, and then opened my own smaller practice three years ago here.

I've always loved working with kids, ever since I was a child. I spent many years babysitting, I tutored them in school academics. So when I decided to go to medical school, I knew I was going to be a pediatrician.
I love helping families raise healthy kids. In my practice I focus a lot on nutrition and sleep and lifestyle modification because I feel that so many illnesses and diseases can be prevented if you start back with the basics. So, I spend a lot of time talking to my families and then treating them, and then of course being available when their kids do get sick to help them out then as well.

When I opened my own practice, Calabasas Pediatrics, three years ago, I looked around for different electronic health records and that's when I chose PCC. So, I've been using them for three years. You know, it's very intimidating when you're looking for an electronic health record. There are so many different ones available and I sort of narrowed it down to the main two pediatric-focused electronic health records. And when I talked to PCC, I just really loved that it's a family. They have amazing support staff, they helped me with all aspects of starting up my own practice - since they've been in pediatric practices for years, they were just so knowledgeable and helpful, and I found it very user-friendly and easy to use.

I think I first found out about PCC at the national American Academy of Pediatrics conference. I have a long relationship myself with American Academy of Pediatrics. I've been on several executive committee boards, I write a few of their parenting books, I'm a spokesperson for the AAP. So, every year at the conference, I look around to see what's new, what's going on, what I need to know about, and when I was looking into opening my own practice, I wanted to find out what's the latest and what's the greatest and that's how I came to find PCC.

I've had a great experience with PCC ever since the first day when I opened my practice they were here for me, they helped us set up, they helped us walk through the whole patient experience getting patients in rooms and seen and checked out, and it's been very user-friendly and easy, so I'm so glad that I decided on PCC three years ago.

So even though PCC is very user-friendly, sometimes questions come up and I need their help. So usually I call or email them, or I have my office manager do that, and they always get back to us right away. So, I feel like there's always someone there waiting to help me when I need it.

So, we're just now starting to use the patient portal and it's actually been very helpful because patients can go on and print out their own immunization records and visit summaries. So, we're not getting as many phone calls saying ‘hey, I need my child's vaccine records for camp next week’ or for the school. So, in that way it's nice, so parents can just go on and access their own child's information when they need to.

You know, I think my favorite part about PCC is pocketPCC - that it's mobile. Because my practice is a little different and sometimes I do home visits, there's some days where I'm working from home returning patient emails and phone calls, and I can always access my patient charts and their weight - which we know is important when you need to call in prescriptions. And so I feel like I always have my patient records with me in my pocket or my handbag, and that's been extremely helpful to me.

Before I had PCC, in my old practice we used paper charts. So, I had thousands of paper charts. So when parents would call me at night with a question, unless I remembered their child, I really didn't have a way of looking up the records. And now it's so nice that I can have access to everything on my phone through pocketPCC. So I can say, ‘oh yes’, you know, ‘I remember your child, this is the last time I saw them, this is their current weight, their health history’, you know, ‘how can I help you’. And I find that it's much easier and more convenient so that way I can really practice medicine the way it should be practiced.

Healthcare is changing so much and while it's great that there is more access for everybody to different types of healthcare, I do feel like sometimes some doctors are sort of losing out on their independence and they're rushing, you know, to see all their patients that they need to in a day and they really don't have as much time to think and figure stuff out. And my favorite part of medicine is really the art of medicine and that's why I like slowing down and really thinking about each patient individually and taking time to figure out really unusual cases and coming up with a treatment plan that really, you know, varies for each individual patient and family. Because my patients aren't protocols - they're all individuals.

I think when you're looking to choose a pediatric EHR, you know, having one that really focuses on pediatrics is important because when you look at a lot of other electronic health records that focus on adults and kids and specialists, you really don't have the same capabilities - the vaccine forecasting, the way to schedule patients the way a pediatrician does. Because Pediatrics is different, you know, we do things very uniquely and so I feel that having PCC, a pediatric-specific EHR, you know, has really helped me start my practice, develop my practice, and grow my practice to take care of kids, since that's what we do as pediatricians.

I love being part of the PCC family, so thank you for accepting me and my practice. It's been so helpful and really makes coming to work every day and seeing my patients a lot more fun.