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In pursuing its Level 3 designation as a Patient-Centered Medical Home last fall, BCA Medical Associates looked to clinical and financial reports in PCC's Practice Vitals Dashboard as an indispensable part of the process, says Roe Vandenbout, administrator at the practice in Roswell, NM.

“Without it, we wouldn't have qualified for certification in some areas,” says Vandenbout. BCA, he says, helped document meaningful use using a number of Dashboard reports, including Recaller, which summarizes how well your practice is doing in keeping patients up-to-date on well visits.

And now, PCC's Dashboard is even more powerful, not to mention easier to navigate. The web-based  menu of reports on pediatric benchmarks now includes data on accepted and rejected claims and a new measurement indicating the percentage of A/R that is older than 60 days.

Eighteen PCC practices, so far, have agreed to lend patient data in the development of new growth charts for children with Down Syndrome. The growth parameters and diagnostic data of 106 patients are included in the Vanderbilt University project aimed at creating charts that more accurately represent the growth of Down Syndrome patients today and can be easily integrated into EHR systems.

Remember the confidence you felt when taking a test on material you knew inside and out?

It's the same feeling PCC wants all its clients to have upon receiving each new Partner/PCC EHR update, which is why we recommend everyone watch our release videos. Each 15-20 minute video is made available at least a week in advance of the scheduled update and contains an audio and visual tour of all the new features and how to use them.

PCC's technical writer, Douglas Beagley, is the talent, and the distinctive voice, behind the videos that have become one of PCC's most popular teaching tools. “We've been making videos for more than five years, but we've really amped them up in the last two,” says Beagley. “Since last year, we've put out a video for each release because it gets the most information out to people in the fastest and most effective way.”

Whether or not you have an EHR, having consistent clinical protocols is vital.  I am a fan of the oft-misunderstood Bright Futures, myself, but even BF doesn't cover everything.  One missing piece of the puzzle was filled about a year ago when MedImmune, in collaboration with NICHQ,  unveiled what I call the "Preemie Toolkit."  Acually, that's what they call it too, now that I think about it.

It was during last year's PCC Users' Conference that Chicago-area pediatric office manager Brandon Betancourt drew on personal experience in teaching his class: Practice Makeover – 101 Ways to Transform Your Practice.

Betancourt and his wife, Dr. Joanna Betancourt, had decided in 2004 to open their own pediatric practice and were sitting in a class on pediatric coding, attempting to bone up on the basics. Betancourt recalled the puzzlement on his wife's face as the instructor delved into the complicated world of ICD.

“She had this look of confusion, like she was cramming for an exam,” Betancourt told UC class attendees. Dr. Betancourt had not only been out of medical school for several years, “Coding 101” had never been a prerequisite, he said. “It was a rude awakening for us. We realized we really needed to stay on top of things, and that's when we began our transformation.”