Practical Advice For Practices
Maximizing the evolving EHR
By Michael Lovett, Executive Vice President and General Manager, NextGen Healthcare
It’s not easy being a small to mid-size physician practice these days. Shrinking reimbursements, new payment models and increasing competition are just a few things adding complexity to day-to-day operations. Not to mention the looming regulatory requirements – specifically Meaningful Use Stage 2 and ICD-10 – which keep changing and causing confusion. Given all the moving parts, it’s no wonder that physicians wrestle with how to effectively maintain care quality, reduce costs and stay financially viable.
How well a practice leverages its electronic health record (EHR) can mean the difference between successfully navigating the current environment and struggling to stay afloat. Although many physicians initially wanted these platforms to mimic paper processes, they soon found this reinforced clunky workflows. Here are a few recent changes that have substantially improved the tool, mitigating issues with workflow efficiency. These changes have made EHRs a critical resource to enable better workflow, allowing physicians to use the technology more efficiently and effectively.
Going mobile. Patient care doesn’t always occur in an office, especially now that patients and providers are communicating via portals, emails and so on. Offering mobile access, rather than previously only on certain devices in the physician office, puts patient information at the physician’s fingertips wherever they are, increasing convenience while streamlining workflow.
Moving to the cloud. EHR vendors are beginning to use cloud technology to reduce reliance on servers and other hardware. This has the potential to lessen practice costs and overhead, helping practices improve their bottom line. Sophisticated cloud technology can also secure large volumes of patient information and ensure prompt disaster recovery. The practice must determine what level of cloud-enabled technologies is best for their business goals.
Leveraging analytics. To optimize the mass of data in an EHR, many solutions offer robust analytics that allow practices to look across their population and identify high-risk, high-cost patients. This allows physicians to leverage data collected through their EHR, not just compile and house it. By proactively responding to these patients’ health needs, practices can improve patient outcomes while reducing costs.
Driving interoperability. As more practices participate in risk-based payment models, the need to share information with other providers and settings grows. It used to be that a practice had to have the same EHR as an outside provider to seamlessly share information, but that is no longer the
case. Progressive vendors are working to incorporate interoperability interfaces into their solutions that facilitate seamless information exchange across multiple, diverse systems. This is possible with robust EHR technology with embedded interoperability features.
The key to getting the most out of an EHR is to have physicians directly involved in selecting and implementing the tool. All too often, practices look at EHR implementation as an IT exercise rather than a multidisciplinary process. However, if practices don’t include clinical, financial and IT professionals, chances are the system will fall short.
Before configuring an EHR, practices should determine the system’s goals. For example, will it be used for data aggregation, treatment planning, interoperability or some combination of these? Taking time to develop an overarching strategy and framing the technology to support that strategy is a best practice for successful implementation and usage.
Finally, organizations should map their workflows and make improvements before onboarding or replacing an EHR. Technology – no matter how advanced – will not fix ineffective workflows. However, when implemented with forethought and interdisciplinary input, an EHR can facilitate and support workflows and optimal patient care.
Integrated Systems
Smartphone tech bridges EHR, nurse call, critical device alarms
After caregivers at the Nash Health Care Emergency Department in Rocky Mount, NC, were equipped with Cerner’s CareAware solutions running on iPhones, the integration of mobile communication technology with bedside care and reporting earned the facility a Pathway Award from the American Nurses Credentialing Center for demonstrating innovation and technology to create a positive nurse practice environment.
CareAware Connect linked the hospital’s EHR and nurse-call systems to provide real-time patient and device data to caregivers – and it did a lot more. Nurses, physicians, radiology techs and other caregivers gained the ability to make VoIP-based calls and securely text one another, receive critical alerts and access patient information. Special attention was given to determine which alarms would be sent to staff phones to streamline alert handling. CareAware Reporting helps analyze and refine reporting patterns on an ongoing basis.
Read more about this application in the whitepaper titled “Care Team Collaboration and Emergency Care” available through the blog section at www.cerner.com/blog/. The blog also contains an extensive interview with Leslie Hall, Chief Nursing Officer, Nash Hospitals, about the CareAware Connect implementation.
Physician Support in EHRs
Allscripts has received the U.S. Health Provider Partner of the Year award from Microsoft Corp. for technology contributions in the areas of patient and population health. The company was recognized for the development of its Allscripts Wand for Windows 8 application for PCs and tablets, which gives clinicians the ability to use legacy and new EHRs simultaneously on the same device, and for its EHR-agnostic FollowMyHealth patient engagement portal, which employs the Microsoft Azure platform. Allscripts
e-MDs gets into population health
e-MDs, a provider of EHR and practice management (PM) solutions, is teaming up with Lightbeam Health Solutions to provide population health management to e-MDs’ physician practices and healthcare enterprises. This paired solution has already been selected to power over 40 ACOs nationally. The unified platform consists of a tightly integrated set of modules that includes enterprise data warehouse, risk stratification, integrated analytics, care management, physician engagement and member engagement. e-MDs
Greenway is a top ambulatory EHR vendor
Greenway Health has received “Best of the Best” recognition from Black Book’s 2014 Rankings – Ambulatory/Alternate Site EHR survey results for patient health data management and administrative processing. Greenway solutions were also acknowledged in the following categories: orthopedic/hand/spine surgery, neurosurgery, thoracic surgery, and community health center/federally qualified health center/rural health clinic. In addition to a number of other Black Book rankings through the years, this marks the fourth straight year Greenway has received this award for thoracic surgery. Greenway Health
Emdeon, Practice Fusion team up to simplify claims
When scheduling patient visits through the Practice Fusion EHR, medical professionals will now be able to check a patient’s health plan information electronically via the Emdeon network, which will eliminate the need to call individual payers to verify coverage. By adding automated patient eligibility and benefit checks into their existing workflows, physicians should see quicker payments. Emdeon’s Intelligent Healthcare Network connects physicians and other providers to commercial and government health plan payers nationwide. Emdeon, Practice Fusion
Quammen Health Care Consultants offers planning, assessment and implementation services to healthcare providers of all sizes. If you are considering a new EHR because your first system was unsatisfactory, QHCC understands your predicament. From strategic advisory services to hands-on implementation, providers rely on the QHCC team for high-level analysis, vendor selection, deployment and support of any IT system.
Quammen Health Care Consultants
athenahealth’s athenaNet platform (which includes practice management and a cloud-based EHR) and Henry Schein’s Dentrix Enterprise, the leading electronic dental record (EDR) solution installed in Community Health Centers (CHCs) across the United States, are pairing up to facilitate Uniform Data System (UDS) reporting, which is a requirement for CHCs, including Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). The advanced platform integration will automate the reporting process, ensuring accurate, complete UDS reports without the need for manual and time-consuming reconciliation between separate systems.
Henry Schein, athenahealth
Paragon goes mobile
Paragon Clinician Mobile is a native iOS application that gives physicians fast and secure, single sign-on mobile access to patient-specific clinical data, schedules and task lists from anywhere at any time. This workflow-focused application, which is the perfect companion to Paragon WebStation for Physicians, features a user interface optimized with the provider in mind. In addition to the iPad application available via the iTunes store, the solution is available on Apple, Windows 8 and Android smartphone platforms. McKesson
GE gets deeper into accountable care
GE Healthcare is extending Caradigm’s population health solutions into its install base of ambulatory providers. Caradigm offers a comprehensive portfolio of solutions, including information gathering from EHRs, billing systems, payers, pharmacy systems, labs and HIEs, to enable health systems and Integrated Delivery Networks (IDN) to improve population health. The portfolio comprises data aggregation and control, healthcare analytics, care management and coordination, and wellness and patient engagement to help ambulatory practices and single hospitals shift to accountable care. GE Healthcare