Ambulatory EHR Used To Address Value-Based Care Challenges
By Megan Williams, contributing writer
Gila River Health Care (GRHC) provides a case study of how your healthcare IT clients can use electronic health records (EHRs) to solve challenges in an ambulatory care facility. GRHC is facing regulatory-related growth issues that its legacy system is not prepared to handle. Transitioning to ICD-10, and preparation for Meaningful Use Stage 2 has left the Arizona facility asking questions around its EHR and how it can best be used to tackle upcoming growth issues.
A Legacy System
GRHC faces the challenge of transitioning a legacy behavioral health system to EHR. Dr. Lorrie Henderson, CEO, describes the facility’s current state: “With portions of our organization still utilizing paper records and having outgrown the functionalities of our legacy solution, we recognized the pressing need to implement a fully integrated solution alongside a technology partner that could support both the tribal and behavioral health specialty-specific needs of our organization. With the support of NextGen Healthcare and its long-standing reputation in both the tribal and behavioral health communities, we believe Gila River is well-positioned for success in the new value- based care environment.”
A Partnership In Response
GRHC partnered with NextGen Healthcare Information Solutions to address organizational efficiencies and encourage growth as it faces the challenges of regulatory requirements that government healthcare reform initiatives have brought with them, according to Insurance News Net.
The facility leverages NextGen’s Ambulatory EHR, and NextGen Practice Management solutions in their progress to achieve various goals including:
- creating an integrated platform
- building a single database
- addressing specialty-specific needs
- delivering outcome-based patient care
The facility will also be transitioning its behavioral health services to EHRs.
NextGen Solutions
According to Health IT Outcomes, NextGen Ambulatory EHR will help improve GRHC’s efficiency and “reduce the administrative burden of documentation” by implementing role-based workflows.” The facility expects that the use of NextGen’s solution will give its employees the benefit of working simpler, specifically through the use of the new ICD-9/-10 diagnoses search tool — a search function with a web-browser-like interface where results are ranked by relevance and use frequency. The tool can be configured by user using a drag-and-drop function.
Going Deeper
Across the country, ambulatory healthcare providers are reconsidering their EHR systems. To read about specific examples of this growing trend, please see “Ambulatory Healthcare Providers Are Replacing Their EMR Systems.”