AdvantageCare Physicians Becomes Fifth N.Y. Medical Facility to Reach HIMSS Stage 6

AdvantageCare Physicians (ACP), a New York City-based multispecialty physician practice group and partner of EmblemHealth, has reached Stage 6 on the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM).

EMRAM is a methodology for evaluating the progress and impact of electronic medical record systems for ambulatory facilities in the HIMSS Analytics database. Ambulatory sites track their progress in completing eight stages (0-7), with Stage 7, an advanced electronic patient record environment, being the highest. According to a statement from ACP, no medical facility in New York State has reached Stage 7, and only five—including AdvantageCare Physicians—have reached Stage 6.

A Stage 6 designation by HIMSS Analytics indicates that an ambulatory facility has almost fully automated/paperless medical records that are available across most of the outpatient care settings. Among other qualifications, the facility must have achieved significant advancement in its IT capabilities, and is either starting to evaluate its data for care delivery process improvements or has already documented significant improvements in this area.

At ACP, the path to reaching Stage 6 began with its investment in and implementation of the Epic Systems EMR. “ACP rolled out Epic with a big bang approach across our 36 medical offices in 2014,” Benjamin Bordonaro, ACP’s vice president, clinical and revenue cycle, said in a statement. “The project included all specialties, lab, imaging and an interactive patient portal. Since the go-live we implemented our care collaboration and business intelligence platform including tools for population management, patient outreach and transitions of care."