Fremont Health
The Client
Fremont Health is a 202-bed healthcare facility, serving Dodge County and surrounding counties. Fremont Health is comprised of 90 hospital beds with private rooms and 112 beds of long-term care, with private and semiprivate rooms. Located in Fremont, Nebraska, on U.S. Hwy. 30, Fremont Health is the only hospital within the county and is adjacent to several medical office buildings and support services. (FremontHealth.com)
The Situation
The Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) is a model of care in which a patient’s primary care physician becomes, in essence, the “home base” for that patient’s care. This new model for health care and reimbursements shifts to providing and managing health care as it relates to all things – working with all physicians in the patient’s scope of needs, hospital visits, specialists, etc. – which enables the physician to establish an overall care plan.
Because this holistic approach is designed to help physicians improve the care and management of high risk patients, and patient populations in general, practices will experience higher reimbursements because overall costs of care will be reduced. Practices must put processes in place and qualify for recognition as a Patient Centered Medical Home.
The Client's Need
Fremont Family Care was undertaking a major strategic initiative to elevate quality of care by managing overall health through optimization and enhancement of its eClinicalWorks® systems. A primary goal in this initiative was to achieve PCMH recognition, which directly impacts the cost of care and reimbursements by reducing duplication of services, allowing health care providers to become more efficient, and provide better care by leveraging evidence-based medicine through analysis of patient population to identify and prescribe medications that are working in that population.
How Ero Helped
Ero Health worked closely with Fremont Family Care throughout their PCMH recognition process. With a wealth of technical knowledge in
implementing and optimizing eClinicalWorks®, as well as their depth of skill in creating workflows to help practices be successful with the new processes required to achieve PCMH, Ero Health was able to work with Fremont to identify and design the most appropriate workflows while implementing the eClinicalWorks® modules and reports to help them achieve a high level of integration and efficiency.
The measures Ero Health created reports for include:
- Depression Screening based on the selected PHQ-2 or 9
questions and answers - Diabetes BP based on the patient’s most recent BP with
specified range - Diabetes Blood Sugar based on the patient’s most recent
lab results under the specified limit - Pneumovax based on the selected vaccine procedure
All reports allowed selection by appointment date range, age range, facility, appointment provider, and diagnosis.
The Results
Through its partnership with Ero Health, Fremont Family Care was able to achieve Level 3 PCMH Recognition, the highest level of recognition for PCMH. Determining factors included points awarded for items such as patient access to their health records, identification and management of patient populations, practices for planning, tracking and managing patient care, and systems for reporting and measuring performance.
In addition to the Level 3 PCMH Recognition, Fremont Family Care was the recipient of the 2014 Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Nicholas E. Davies Award of Excellence. This award honors organizations who have utilized health information technology to substantially improve patient outcomes while achieving return on investment. Scores of nominations were received for consideration in three categories. Fremont Family Care was named the winner in the Ambulatory Awards category.
