Utilizing Clinical Data in Your Practice Management System

With all the buzz about EHR stimulus money, pediatricians are feeling increasing pressure to implement EHRs in their practice. Rather than rushing into a decision you may regret down the road, you may be able to take steps toward using clinical technology in your practice simply by better utilizing your practice management system.

There are many tasks you should be able to do and data you should have access to in your practice management system that will help you implement clinical technology in your practice. The benefits of taking these steps are two-fold: allowing staff to gain experience using technology in the clinical workflow as preparation for EHR, and helping your practice provide better care to patients while increasing your bottom-line.

Track Diagnoses and Allergies

Based on the codes used for billing purposes, you can learn how many times a specific diagnosis is given at your practice as well as track any major diagnoses on a per-patient basis. You can track information about patients without having to pull their chart, saving you time and money. The same thing can be said for tracking allergies at your practice. This information is automatically tracked for each patient in the Partner Practice Management System, but you should have access to this data in any good practice management system.

Monitor and Encourage Preventive Care

You can track the immunization record of your patients using data in your practice management system and print school or camp forms that include a patient's immunization history. By utilizing your practice management system for this information, it saves you from having to pull out a patient's chart, and provides your practice with important medical information without the use of an electronic health record.

As a pediatric practice, it's very important to provide preventive care to your patients and make sure you are regularly recalling patients to keep them up-to-date on physicals. Many good practice management systems will provide you with this information, internally tracking the date of a patient's last well visit. The Partner Practice Management System will track a patient's recommended well visit schedule and can tell you when he or she is due for a physical. You can use this information to find out which patients to recall for preventive visits and improve quality of care at your practice.

Depending on the sophistication of your practice management system, you may be able to learn lots of other clinical information, such how many asthma patients you have and if they have a flu shot yet this season. Or you can view how many ADHD patients are in need of a checkup. These particular measurements allow you to monitor and care for high-risk patients in your practice just by utilizing billing data. Your practice can then recall patients in need of a flu shot, a checkup, , or simply patients that are overdue for a well visit. PCC clients have ongoing access to this information in their Practice Vitals Dashboard, as well as a number of other important clinical measures, such as the sick-to-well visit ratio, number of diagnoses per visit, and percentage of patients up-to-date on well visits.

Participate in Pay-for-Performance Programs

Having access to this clinical information is not only frequently medically necessary for your practice, but can also help you participate in some Pay-for-Performance (P4P) programs facilitated by your insurance companies. Many Pay-for-Performance programs use measures that can be retrieved or reported from your practice management system.

Some examples of measurements you may be able to use for P4P programs include:

• The percentage of patients up-to-date on well visits
• How often you perform a rapid strep test for patients diagnosed with pharyngitis 
• How many of your patients are up-to-date on MMR and/or Varicella vaccines

These are all examples of information that can be retrieved based on billing data, without the need for an EHR to gain this clinical information. Whether or not you have an EHR, your practice management systems may be able to track much of the same data as EHRs.

Tools for Clinical Staff

Some systems may include tools designed specifically for the clinical staff, such as a nurses workstation to document phone encounters, or handheld patient management software for providers, like Pocket Partner for PCC clients, which allows providers to check their schedule and document phone and hospital notes from anywhere. Check with your vendor to find out if such tools are availble in your system. 

The Bottom Line

Regardless of what others are doing, or what outside pressures you are experiencing, only your practice can know when it's the right time to implement an electronic health record. While there are certainly many potential benefits of implementing an EHR, if it is not a good fit or if your practice is not ready, the risks may outweigh the benefits.

If you do not want to rush into such a big decision, your practice may try easing into clinical technology by utilizing clinical data available in your practice management system. Depending on your system, you may be able to gain a lot or a little information about your practice. Either way, taking steps toward making your staff comfortable using technology will go a long way toward preparing your office for an EHR and streamlining office processes.