PODCAST: Transformative Healthcare

This is the second in a series of podcasts devoted to highlighting our Innovator award winners from this year that were presented at the HIMSS Conference in Orlando in February. The Healthcare Informatics Innovator Awards Program recognizes leadership teams from patient care organizations—hospitals, medical groups, and health systems—that have effectively deployed information technology in order to improve clinical, administrative, financial, or organizational performance.A dozen years before the term meaningful use entered the healthcare lexicon in relation to electronic health records, Southeast Texas Medical Associates (SETMA), a Beaumont-based 22-physician multi-specialty medical group, acquired its electronic health record (EHR) system. It was the organization's first baby step in an ongoing journey that has led its physicians to embrace the intensive use of outcome measures as an integral part of providing care to their patients. In a rapid succession of innovations, SETMA has essentially exploded the traditional black box of clinical care by introducing the concepts of audits, performance tracking, and-not least-public reporting of physician performance, as a way to drive constant improvement in the quality of patient care.

James L. Holly, M.D.To download this podcast from iTunes, click here.