2004 DAVIES PRIMARY CARE AWARD WINNEREliza de Guzman

HTM680 Health Informatics Case Study

Background

Pediatrics at the Basin, is a two-physician private pediatric practice located in Pittsford, New York, a suburb of Rochester. Alice Loveys, MD, and Janet Cranshaw, MD, opened the practice in 2002. Had a staff of:

approximately three FTE’s

4200 annual patient encounters

95% of the practice’s patients belong to an HMO

Management

The management are motivated to implement EHR more for personal reasons than financial reasons. For there was never enough time to evaluate patients, document the care given, and provide detailed instructions for care for the patients. Loveys, Cranshaws and other member of a local sister office purchase the SOAPware by Docs Inc., a Fayetteville, Arkansas,-base company.

With Initial cost for EHR:

$1500/physician with $300/year per physicians (technical support and upgrades)

$10,000 for initial hardware investment (with ongoing cost of $1500/yr)

Objectives

The Objectives is to achieve a better balance of home and professional life, to create an office with an unrushed atmosphere, and to provide thorough medical care.

Implementation & Functionality

The EHR offered several modules for interface with a variety of products:

practice management systems

Local laboratories

Spirometers

EKG machines

Other data collection tools

Templates were created to meet the practice’s needs.

Cont.

Other functionality included in the following:

Medications.

Radiology report.

Results from laboratory.

One-click printing of personal .history.

Routine preventive care and health maintenance items.

The interface to billing.

Value

Significant work flow changes positively impacted the physicians’ face-to-face patient time and they were able to more completely and accurately record patent encounters, making this information legible for retrieval by other healthcare providers.

Estimated Savings or revenue increases:

$16,800/year (charting/pulled charts)

$1000 to $1,400/year (new patients entry)

$10,000/year (transcription expenses)

$20,000 to $30,000 (office personnel)

Cont.

Time available for patient encounters increased: from 10 mins/acute and 20 mins/well child visit to 15

mins/acute and 30 mins/well child visit. Pharmacy call back time decreased from 15 mins/call to 3

mins/call

In Summary, implementing EHR’s requires

Pediatrics at the Basin called “ a good team to select, implement and make the most of EHR system, and an excellent IT person as part of the team” as critical success factor.

The physicians concluded: “Offices should give themselves time to select and implement a system and build in some time for a team member to develop customizations. The time invested will be well worth it ad you’ll be able to enjoy all the benefits an EHR offers professionally and personally.”

.