Success Stories
Over 2,500 providers in New York City joined PCIP, each with a unique patient mix, specific practice needs, and their own approach to healthcare. These are a few ways physicians found value from the program.
Dr. Ana Olivero, Kingsbridge, Bronx,
10,000 patient visits per year
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in the United States nearly one in three adults and one in five children between the ages of two and nineteen are obese. Data shows that these numbers have tripled in the past thirty years. With the use of the EHR, pediatrician Dr. Ana R. Olivero hopes to minimize her patients' risk of diabetes and a host of other preventable diseases that can emerge from childhood obesity.
Dr. Olivero uses her EHR to effectively communicate with patients and parents. During each visit, Dr. Olivero reviews the child's health status with the parent. The EHR provides her with a clear view of how the child's health is progressing over time.
Dr. Olivero states, "The EHR really facilitates the discussion with the parent and the child." She explains that the EHR allows her to discuss with parents life style choices contributing to the child's current health status and ways to make specific lifestyle changes which will benefit the child's long term health. Dr. Olivero links to specific educational web site resources in the EHR that offers the children and parents valuable information to make necessary lifestyle changes.
Dr. Olivero explains, "I review the EHR data with the patients and provide resources they could use at home to implement positive life style changes. The EHR allows me to review the health record with the patient in a very informative manner." She adds that parents appreciate being able to visually understand how their child is doing.
Dr. Olivero contends that she would strongly resist going back to paper medical records. "It would be like taking ten steps backwards in the progress of quality patient care. She adds, "Yes, paper charts are fast but they offer an incomplete picture of the patient's health status." Dr. Olivero reasons that it is important to be able to track patterns and identify gaps in patient care to intervene, monitor and improve health outcomes.
To read more, please visit: http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/pcip/nov-2011-pcip-newsletter.pdf
Dr. Jonathan Mohrer, Forest Hills, Queens,
4,000 patient visits per year
Dr. Jonathan Mohrer was surprised to hear that he was among the first NYC REACH members to successfully attest for Meaningful Use. "I'm not doing anything extraordinary, just using an EHR," he told a room of doctors in July. As he later explained, the requirements for the EHR incentive program were in line with how he has been using the EHR since the beginning. "The worst part," he said, "is getting the paperwork and documentation together to attest on the Medicare site."
Dr. Mohrer, who runs a solo practice in Forest Hills, Queens, succeeded with Meaningful Use largely due to his commitment to learning about EHRs. He spent a lot of time trying to implement an EHR that was appropriate for his practice. He read articles about EHR adoption, Meaningful Use, and trends in health information technology. When he spoke at the NYC REACH July Open House, he advised his colleagues considering an EHR to commit fully to the process. "Don't try to keep your records half on paper and half in the computer," he said. "It's a lot of work to make the full switch but six months or a year later when the patient returns, all the information will be right there with cleaner documentation."
Like many other physicians who gave up paper charts, Dr. Mohrer is glad he made the switch, even though it took a lot of work. He remembers spending lots of time on the phone with the vendor to learn about the system and customize it to fit his practice. Within a year, however, he says the time spent up front was well worth it.
"I just didn't see the point of waiting," said Dr. Mohrer. He says that receiving incentive payments should not be the motivation for adopting and implementing an EHR; the motivation should be to practice medicine in a way that is most helpful for patients and suitable in the healthcare environment today. In fact, he says that the $18,000 is a great way to help offset the costs of adopting and implementing an EHR, especially when taking into account hardware costs and the initial adjustments to using the system.
To read more, please visit: http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/pcip/sept-2011-pcip-newsletter.pdf
Dr. Michael Richter, Rego Park, Queens,
4,000 patient visits per year
"Deciding to adopt an EHR is like jumping off the high dive," Dr. Michael Richter explains. "It's scary, but you know you'll live." Almost two years after installing his EHR, he now says that if someone took the computers out of his Rego Park, Queens practice, paper charts would drive him crazy.
Like many doctors, he overcame the initial learning curve and now sees benefits for his patients' health and managing his practice. Looking forward, he sees EHRs and the Patient-Centered Medical Home model improving the healthcare system as a whole through better data exchange and physician-led Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs).
Dr. Richter easily lists the ways his EHR improves patient care. He encourages those with a computer at home to use the online Patient Portal to view lab results and track their progress over time. "My patients can see how their habits or a new medication improves their A1c control, which helps with compliance," he says. Although patients always have the option to call, online access to lab results drastically reduced the number of phone calls to the practice.
Another obvious benefit for patients comes from reduced medical errors. "Unlike illnesses like cancer, medical errors are entirely avoidable," he says. He recently had a patient who received a prescription for an anti-depressant instead of a diuretic because the pharmacist could not read another doctor's handwriting. ePrescribing "works like a charm" to solve this.
Working with PCIP, Dr. Richter used data from his EHR to make sure he was using the system properly. By reviewing his EHR dashboard from PCIP, he saw that he could be ePrescribing more often and successfully increased the number of times he used this function.
The EHR also helps his practice run more smoothly. The system reminds patients about upcoming appointments with an automatic phone call and lets them confirm or cancel by hitting a button. This reduces the number of no-show patients.
To read more, please visit: http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/pcip/may-2011-pcip-newsletter.pdf