PACT - Nov 13, 2004 Portland, OR
Conference Schedule
8:00 am – 9:00 am
Registration/Exhibits Open
9:00 am – 10:15 am
Keynote: Electronic Health Records – A Leadership Opportunity for Physicians
Robert J. Lamberts, MD, Senior Partner, Evans Medical Group PC, Evans, GA
With the determination of the federal government and payers to achieve the deployment of the EHR in physician practices over the next several years, there is both the opportunity and a challenge for doctors in computerization. This session will address the opportunity for doctors to take back a key leadership role in healthcare delivery, and will also address the very practical challenges in computerizing your practice. Challenges such as how to make your practice more profitable; how to work through the changes that computerization will mean for your clinical practice, office operations and your staff; how to use computerization to support clinical tasks such as prescriptions, patient tracking, etc.; and how to use it effectively to reduce malpractice risk will all be addressed.
The attendee will learn to:
- Understand the current state of adoption of EHR in office settings
- Identify and resolve the main barriers to greater adoption, particularly how the cost of the EHR is going to be paid
- Analyze and utilize the major initiatives that have been launched by the federal government, by payers and by provider organizations to overcome the barriers
- Recognize the potential of HIT to increase their own satisfaction with practice and to provide leadership opportunities for the profession
10:15 am – 10:30 am
Break
10:30 am – 11:45 am
Track 1: Getting Started
Getting Ready for an EHR
Doug Walta, MD, CEO, Oregon Clinic GI Division, Portland, OR
Getting started with the EHR implies decision-making about many things:
- The functionalities you want
- Getting and evaluating vendor proposals
- Preparing your office staff and other doctors for becoming fully computerized
- Making a plan and setting time frames
- Working with your selected vendor
- Managing patient expectations
- Assuring privacy and security
This session will address all of these areas and more as the speaker walks through the actual experience of implementing the EHR, describes pitfalls and how to avoid them, and provides you with key tips, suggestions and tools for decision-making.
The attendee will learn to:
- Analyze whether your practice is ready for the EHR in terms of people, facilities, doctor champion, IT expertise and patience
- Develop a logical sequence for selection, buying and deploying full computerization
- Select vendors who are right for you
- Manage your computerization project
Track 2: Making the Most of your EHR
Before and After an EHR: Surviving Change and Thriving
Charles M. Kilo, MD, MPH, FACP, Fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement & CEO, Greenfield Health System, Portland, OR
You’ve computerized, now take the opportunity to make the most of your investment. This session will address how you can go to the next level of increasing practice revenues and profitability, and improving efficiency. The speaker will talk from real experience about how your computer technology will:
- Identify common challenges in implementation such has managing the ‘oops,’ disaster recovery to prevent data and systems from being lost and incentivizing laggard adopters in your office
- Change specific tasks in your office such as refill requests, results review, note generation and dictation, and call coverage
- Improve the workflow in your office including return phone calls, order legibility, disease management consistencies, patient tracking and getting diagnostic results more quickly
- Foster easier communication with other doctors and clinicians for referrals and diagnostic information
- Further improve your practice profitability
- Save you time - eventually
The attendee will learn to:
- Understand the depth of transformation of practice that is possible with an EHR
- Analyze key prerequisites to practice transformation, and be able to assess whether their practice is ready
- Recognize the most common challenges to practice transformation and how to overcome them
11:45 am – 1:00 pm
Lunch/Exhibits Open
1:00 pm – 2:15 pm
Track 1: Getting Started
Rollout or Rollover: What an Electronic Health Record Implementation Feels Like
Barbara M. Drury,
President,
Pricare Inc.,
Larkspur, CO
Many doctors have already fully computerized their practices and created a totally paperless environment in which to work. This is a daunting task but one that can positively impact your bottom line and quality results, as well as make your patients happier. This session is a chance for you to “not re-invent the wheel.” You will hear the complete story from your colleague about how she did it, including setbacks, disappointments and problems. She will walk through:
- Managing cash flow dips during rollout
- Handling contracting and pre-implementation planning
- The process of deployment
- The transition of records from paper to electronic (phasing or going “cold turkey”)
- Managing staff and office operations through the process
- Communication with patients
- Financial and quality results
The attendee will learn to:
- Learn what techniques of EHR vendor selection and implementation have worked successfully for colleagues
- Understand the pitfalls to avoid in the process
- Be able to benchmark their own progress against that of a colleague’s successful effort and make corrections if necessary
- Measure bottom line financial results
Track 2: Making the Most of your EHR: Harnessing the EHR to Improve Quality and Efficiency in Your Practice
James R. Morrow, Jr., MD, North Fulton Family Medical Center, Cumming, GA
A major advantage that those who have implemented the EHR have found is that it truly provides for improved patient care and outcomes. You have just heard about the operational and business factors to expect and how to achieve them, now let’s turn attention to clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction. Using research literature and the anecdotal experience of others who have succeeded in implementing the EHR, the speaker will explain how information technology can improve patient care for specific conditions and will describe the process for using EHR data to study chronic diseases in your practice, e.g. using structured vs. free text, data mining, canned reporting and custom reporting. He will discuss how computerization:
- Puts extensive diagnostic research information at your fingertips
- Can give you measurably improved outcomes
- Can improve your communication with patients
- Provides the array of data to which you will have access on each of your patients
- Helps you to avoid prescription and diagnostic mistakes that happen as you rely on other professionals to fill those prescriptions and complete diagnostic work
The attendee will:
- Be able to list the opportunities for quality improvement and efficiency gains available to practices with a functioning EHR
- Gain knowledge of the degree of quality and efficiency gains that are possible
- Understand specific requirements in the implementation of EHR, in order to enable pursuit of these goals
2:15 pm – 2:30 pm
Break
2:30 pm – 4:00 pm
Moderated Demonstrations in the Exhibit Area
During this time, attendees will have the opportunity to participate in technology demos. Physician users of specific products will demonstrate their EHR products, provide examples of how they are used, describe the functionalities that they provide, and answer questions.
The attendee will learn to:
- Identify features of each product that address patient safety
- Assess each product’s ease of documenting a patient encounter
4:00 pm – 4:30 pm
Wrap Up Session: Moving Forward: Resources Available and Next Steps
Mark K. Leavitt, MD, PhD, Medical Director and Director of Ambulatory Care, HIMSS, Portland, OR
In a short closing session, attendees will be provided with resources and tools that will help them in their decision-making and in moving forward to computerize their offices. While attendees will have seen the products of a variety of vendors, they will leave the program with the unbiased tools and resources to analyze their needs, gather information, make solid decisions and create their plan for implementation of computer systems for a fully functional EHR.
The attendee will:
- Learn what resources are available to assist in vendor selection and implementation of EHR
- Be able to assess their own practice and determine what level of assistance is needed to achieve successful purchase and implementation
- List the steps they must take to move forward from their current point in EHR selection and implementation
4:30 pm – 6:00 pm
Exhibits open
The exhibits area will remain open after the demonstrations and wrap-up session to provide additional opportunities for hands-on experience with available technologies.
