Page 19 - FOCUS December 2017

PRIMARY CARE & COMMUNITY MEDICINE
nity to use Cerner as a process tool to standardize our workflows to reduce unnecessary variability and increase quality. Ultimately it will help us to provide better care because it allows us to know more and do better.
“We knew what questions to ask about workflow because our experience with the heart and vascular specialty rollout allowed us to develop a better product. Now we are seeing the fruits of that work in New Castle, and we are learning even more before the ‘big bang’ of bringing on all primary care practices in December.”
To prepare for the primary care go- live from the clinical side, the New Castle team appropriately altered schedules to allow more time for each patient to avoid backlogs and wait times. Thanks to significant IT support, both onsite and via the com- mand center, the New Castle practice quickly acclimated to the new system and was back to pre-implementation patient volume within a few weeks.
“We have already seen major improvements in some of our workflows,” Dr. Driban said.
Dr. Kerzner said the benefits of the new system will only grow as primary care and more specialty practices are brought online through- out the coming year.
“It’s a better system — a
better electronic health record — in terms of population
health capabilities and the way data
is presented,” said Dr. Kerzner. “As with any change, there will be a bit of pain when practices start using it, but once they learn the new system, they will see that it is better organized. The disjointed nature of ambulatory care goes away now that we are moving to one patient, one chart.”
Down the road, he said, the Cerner platform will allow for a unified pa- tient portal and the ability for patients to self-schedule. The greatest impact of the integrated record, though,
he said, will be the ability to look at populations of patients to proactively identify opportunities to address gaps and optimize care.
Caring for the care team
Dr. Driban described the support provided by Christiana Care’s IT
and Cerner support teams for the go-live as “phenomenal, grade A and first class,” adding that the analysts and consultants were courteous and professional and made the New Castle team feel “really comfortable as we learned the new platform.”
Not only was the implementation sup- port team ready to address technical questions as the New Castle team transitioned to PowerChart,
Dr. Driban said that The Medical Group demonstrated their commit- ment to supporting his staff — to caring for the care team — through the transition, as well.
Mini massages, food deliveries and even a visit by a PAWS for People
pet therapy team provided encour- agement and helped lessen the stress that accompanies a change in routine, especially for those on the first wave of such a massive integration.
“We felt very supported,” Dr. Driban said. “Yes, there were mild pain points, but on day one of the primary care go-live at New Castle, we were able
to see that ‘one patient, one chart’
was going to be a better system. We have already seen the benefits at
New Castle. If this makes us more efficient, if it makes us better providers of health care to our patients, that is what this is all about.” ●
“ An integrated record helps us achieve mutual goals of reducing readmissions and making sure we have good handoffs
of care.”
Sri Donepudi, M.D., MMM, FAAFP
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