NY Orthopaedic Practice Taps athenahealth EHR for Interoperability

Bone & Joint of Albany, NY, has partnered with athenahealth to implement a suite of cloud-based EHR, medical billing, and patient engagement solutions.

The independent orthopaedic practice provides bone, joint, and muscle care, as well as urgent and surgery care. The organization also serves as the orthopaedic department for Albany Medical Center, the region's only Level 1 trauma center catering to 17 counties.

"We selected athenaOne as our health IT solution because of athenahealth's proven commitment to partnership, innovation, and interoperability," David Quinn, MD, managing partner, Bone & Joint of Albany, NY, said in a press release.

"As our operation has expanded to include 70 providers delivering care in more than seven locations, it's critical for us to invest in a state-of-the-art health IT solution that delivers the flexibility, service model, and insights we need to deliver the highest-quality, coordinated care to our more than 190,000 patients while helping us strengthen our robust independent practice," Quinn added.

Bone & Joint of Albany will be able to share patient records with Albany Medical Center, as well as several national and regional health information exchanges (HIEs), to drive care coordination.

Additionally, providers will have access to an integration with athenahealth Marketplace partner iScribe Health to enhance clinical documentation efficiency.

"As orthopaedic providers, we needed a solution that could seamlessly integrate with various systems while helping us focus our staff where they are most knowledgeable and productive," added Patrick Marinello, MD, partner, Bone & Joint of Albany, NY.

"athenaOne satisfies these needs and offers innovative tools to help us hasten our speed of care delivery, from patients accessing appointments and staff through the portal, to documenting the visit, to sharing visit notes with the care team, to placing orders, reporting lab results, and more," Marinello continued.

New York FQHC Leverages eClinicalWorks EMR Optimization

Betances Health Center, a New York-based federally qualified health center (FQHC), is successfully utilizing eClinicalWorks EMR optimization services to standardize and enhance organizational efficiency.

Betances Health Center is a community-based primary care practice that provides services to over 6,000 patients annually across Brooklyn and Manhattan.

The FQHC implemented an integrated EHR from eClinicalWorks that supports medical, dental, vision, and behavioral healthcare delivery.

eClinicalWorks offers tailored optimization Services that streamline workflows and enhance operational efficiencies.

The optimization team evaluates the practice's current workflow to identify gaps and areas of improvement. Then, practices receive training and implementation assistance, helping reduce staff burnout and reach practice goals.

For Betances Health Center, EHR optimization was key in establishing quality reporting and meeting clinical measures, including:

• Controlling high blood pressure: 76.80 percent of patients 18-85 years of age have controlled blood pressure as of Q2 2023, compared to 56.41 percent in 2021.
• Depression screening: As of Q2 2023, Betances screens 83.20 percent of patients aged 12 and older for depression, and if positive, a provider documents a follow-up plan on the date of positive screening, compared to 65.83 percent of patients in 2021.

"Four of our service providers left simultaneously. As a result, we decided to invest in optimization services to educate the new providers and establish uniformity in our operations," said Orlando Perez, MIS director at Betances Health Center.

"With the optimization services, we can meet our clinical quality goal metrics, particularly on cancer registries and HIV management," Perez added. "Without improving our operational efficiencies, we potentially leave over $100,000 on the table."

Practice Streamlines Payment Collections with eClinicalWorks EHR Solutions

Robbins Dermatology has experienced streamlined payment collections and revenue cycle payment processing through a partnership with EHR vendor eClinicalWorks.

Robbins Dermatology offers holistic dermatological care in Sheridan, Wyoming.

"Before implementing healow Payment Services, it would take weeks to receive payments from patients," said Tiffany Drake, practice office manager at Robbins Dermatology. "This meant our front office team had to follow up with our patients multiple times and resend paper statements."

"However, with healow Payment Services, we can automate our communication with patients, send payment reminders via text, and offer secure and streamlined digital billing options our patient portal," she noted.

Robbins Dermatology and its patients benefit from several solutions, including healow CHECK-IN, which prompts patients to complete payments during the check-in process.

Electronic billing through the patient portal and healow app helps cut the cost of printing and mailing patient billing statements.

Robbins also has access to robotic process automation (RPA) to automatically post payments to the correct accounts and increase workflow efficiency.