Ohio HIE Success Story - Cardiovascular Medicine Associates

Cardiovascular Medicine Associates in Cleveland, Ohio is no longer lost in the charts

Time isn’t just money; it can improve patients’ lives. Cardiovascular Medicine Associates suffered from every ailment of the medical paper world: lost charts on a daily basis, pages and pages of faxed test results, wasted time from back-and-forth phone calls between staff, patients, doctors, and hospitals. This group practice handles 20,000 patients with 40 to 50 in the hospital every day. After it purchased an electronic health record (EHR) system in 2012, workflow improved. When it joined the CliniSync Health Information Exchange, the practice received test results and reports from Southwest General Health Center and is now connecting with University Hospitals Parma Medical Center. The practice can choose the “structured data” it needs so doctors only see the information pertinent to their cardiovascular patients. This allows the staff to track trends and progress in patient health outcomes, including those who use certain medications, those with high cholesterol, those with heart conditions who may be improved through nutrition and other factors. 

QUOTE:

“The time savings and efficiencies gained are immeasurable,” says Cindy Volk, RN, practice administrator. “What’s mostly gone is hunting for charts, tracking down where those lab results or documents are.”

HIT Tools Used:

Health Information Exchange

Lab results delivery in real time directly into patient’s electronic chart

Value Added:

Saved time, improved workflow efficiencies, reduced FTEs doing manual tasks, resulted in higher patient satisfaction

Key Results:

Allowed the practice to create about 8 different reports to track and trend the progress of its patients and to provide improved, quality care for those with critical conditions.