Riggs Community Health Center Case Study

The problem

The problem stated in the proposal is to convert Riggs Community Health Center from a hand-written filing system for their patients' records to an Electronic Health Records (EHR) system to fix the following issues:

1. With having multiple locations and only one central location for storing of records, the records must be physically transported to and from each facility. Valuable information could be lost in transportation.

2. It takes numerous man-hours to complete patients' paperwork during their visit, not only for nursing staff but for providers as well. Resulting in less patient-interaction time and longer wait times.

3. Without physically having a patient's chart during a visit, the provider cannot access pertinent information about the patient.

Company Background

Riggs Community Health Center (CHC) is a Federally Qualified Health Center that has been open since 1988. Its mission is to "To improve access to quality, cost effective, comprehensive health care with respect and compassion to underserved community members." (Ford, Center History, 2011) Riggs CHC started in a 900 square feet apartment and is now residing in three buildings in the community and serves over 11,466 patients. (Ford, Center History, 2011) Currently it uses a hand-written filing system for their patients' records as has done so since the company was conceived.

Business Issues

The main business issue in regards to the above stated problem is money. Implementing the new EHR system is going to cost. Total cost of implementing an Electronic Medical Records system can be divided into two main groups: Product Cost and Services Cost. Product Costs consist of: software costs, interface and conversion costs, and hardware costs. Service Costs consist of: EMR implementation and training services costs; installation, configuration and recurring IT services costs, and electronic billing costs. (Prasad, 2010) Since Riggs is a now a Federally Qualified Health Center, it can apply for a grant to pay for the costs of implementing the EHR system.

Benefits of Solving Problem

Introducing the e-Medsys EHR system can and will solve the problems mentioned and then some, that Riggs Community Health Center is facing with its current hand-written filing system. E-Medsys would give Riggs CHC the following benefits:

* "Authorized personnel can access records via secure, HIPAA-compliant connectivity from anywhere, at any time. For example, providers who need to see a patient's record can do so from home, away, vacation or from any place the internet can be accessed.

* HL7 Compliance makes for easy interfacing and importing / exporting of data with other HL7 compliant systems (hospitals, other facilities, etc.)

* Hours of administrative time are saved, workflow and productivity are improved

* Voice Recognition reduces transcription costs and wait times

* "Charts" can be color coded as defined by the practice for immediate visual identification of chart type

* e-Medsys EHR Chart Summary provides a snapshot of all relevant patient data without having to "hunt" the system for it

* Integration with Microsoft WORD and Outlook™

* Template fields are easily populated by customized drop-down selections, or by voice

* User-defined acronyms produce phrases, paragraphs or pages of text

* Today's template can be populated with data from the previous visit, requiring the provided to change only the data relevant to today's visit

* Data can be displayed as flow sheets and growth charts, for example, for analysis

* e-Medsys complies with CMS and Medicare regulations"

(e-Medsys Electronic Health Records (EHR)/(EMR), 2008)

Solution

The solution to the above stated problem for Riggs Community Health Center is to choose and implement the e-Medsys EHR system. By choosing and implementing this system not only will it fix the problem it will give Riggs CHC significant benefits and put them on a level playing field with the competition by bringing them into the 21st century.

E-Medsys EHR system:

 "Can integrate with your existing PM system

 Access patient records from anywhere using secure internet connectivity

 Improves office workflow and productivity

 Supports voice / handwriting recognition

 Eliminate lost or misplaced charts

 Reduce / eliminate costly and time consuming transcription

 Includes Features such as:

* e-Prescribing and comprehensive Prescription / Medication Management

* PracticeOne's own Patented E / M Coder

* PracticeOne's own Patented Health Watcher for health maintenance / recalls

* Electronic Superbill for quick on-the-fly posting of procedures and diagnoses

* Quick ordering of lab tests and obtaining of lab results"

(e-Medsys Electronic Health Records (EHR)/(EMR), 2008)

Once this system is chosen then there are many steps that need to be taken to implement the system. The steps are issues management, developing an implementation plan, chart conversion, establishing the technical infrastructure, training, and then it is at a go live point. (American Health Information Management Association, 2007) These steps will be discussed in more depth in the following Module.

Module 2

Choice of Software

E-Medsys EHR system

Value to the Company

As stated previously, there are three main problems that Riggs Community Health Center is having with their current process of handling medical records. Listed below are the major problems and how solving those problems will bring value to the company.

First, with having multiple locations