CHICAGO – Whether going with a “big bang” approach to electronic health record implementation or taking a phased strategy, three finalists for the HIMSS Davies Ambulatory Care Awards are leveraging their EHRs to improve quality of care and meet meaningful use requirements.
Fallon Clinic, a 357-provider multi-specialty medical group practice in Worcester, Mass., Community Care Physicians, a 200-provider multi-specialty group in New York, and Women’s Health Advantage (WHA) a 20-physician OBGYN practice in Fort Wayne, Ind., were named finalists for the award in May.
While Fallon Clinic took a “four-phased approach” to its EHR, Community Care and WHA went with more of a “big bang approach.”
Larry Garber, MD, medical director for Informatics at Fallon Clinic, wrote in the clinic’s Davies application that, “[We] implemented the largest piece of workflow change that a site could handle without ‘crashing the airplane.’” He added, “Implementation has to be usable and it has to fit into workflow,” which is why he believes that the phased approach was so successful. Garber said this approach also recognized that EHR implementation “never really ends.”
At the opposite extreme, Community Care Physicians’ “big bang approach” saw one practice go live on the entire system every two weeks, said its CMO, Barbara A. Morris, MD. Although Morris admitted this was an “aggressive rollout,” she said “implementation and rollout is not static and doesn’t end in any predefined period of time. It is an ever evolving process.”
“We felt it in our best interest to do all at once,” added Ann Baker, RN, clinical director at WHA.
Michael Jones, practice administrator at WHA, said when staff questioned vendors about other providers’ go-live techniques they often found that with the phased approach providers “get tired of the pain and say this is good enough,” and never fully implement.
Regardless of the approach taken, all three providers say that they are prepared to use their EHRs in a meaningful way in order to improve quality of care for their patients and receive federal incentive money.
With more than 99 percent of Fallon Clinic’s physicians having achieved meaningful use, Garber said, “It’s like we are really living in the future now, and I can tell the others out there that that the future is wonderful.”
The key to this achievement?
“It takes a village to achieve meaningful use,” said Garber. “We have a brilliant group of people working in the IT department. We have doctors and nurses and other staff who are dedicated to giving patients the highest quality of care possible. They recognized the value [of the EHR] and worked through the hard times. They were committed, knowing that it was the best thing for our patients."
Morris says that Community Care is working to adapt and refine its technology “in a way that continues to push the envelope in our community.”
Currently, the medical group is working towards meaningful use and “anticipate starting to report on metrics some time in late August, early September,” she says. “Because we took an early, standardized approach to using the EMR to report on data, we are finding we are really well-positioned compared to our colleagues. With little tweaking our practices will meet meaningful use.”
Baker believes WHA will be prepared to meet meaningful use as well. “I am eating and breathing meaningful use,” she said. “We are knee-deep.”
“Because of EHR implementation and our successful use and integrations, not only do we believe in the concept and capture meaningful use, but we also feel positioned to be a positive force in the overlapping formation of an accountable care organization structure that can be developed in our practice area,” Morris wrote in her Davies application.
Daniel Griffin, MD, chair of the HIMSS Ambulatory Care Davies Award Committee, and past Davies winner, said that as part of the award process each site will undergo a site visit, which will include “observing workflow and system use by various providers.”
WHA’s site visit was scheduled for July 13, Community Care Physicians for July 20 and Fallon Clinic on the 27.
