One of the most valuable and rewarding aspects of our work at MEDITECH with medical professionals is the opportunity to bring providers together to communicate and collaborate.
Feedback from clinicians is a key part of how we develop solutions to address their needs — and when they work together, it can lead to unexpected improvements in how they treat patients.
Dr. Andy Burchett, CMIO of Avera Health, recalled one such instance during our recent PAC conference, where he was able to share a process that delivered impressive results at Avera and promises to do the same for other organizations.
Burchett described a process within Expanse that Avera has been using since 2019: By renaming ‘acute procedures’ to ‘provider procedures’ within the Ambulatory documentation tool, they were able to add important functionality for their doctors that significantly reduced their click count.
“We've already capitalized on that efficiency, but I think the satisfaction for us helping others and knowing that it could save 50 to 100 clicks for a provider per procedure and allows for dropping of charge codes, so that you're not going to forget something,” he said. “And these are big-dollar items, so that goes straight to the bottom line. There are all sorts of benefits around it — we talked about a return on investment, and how a few minutes of collaboration will have a tremendous impact across the Ambulatory space.”
For Dr. Suresh Seshan of Hancock Regional Hospital, the chance to meet with other doctors who use MEDITECH opened the door to learning about how best to optimize our current solutions — and how MEDITECH plans to continue innovating.
“I appreciate the opportunity to network with the physicians and providers from other organizations and learn what kinds of experiences they're having with MEDITECH, and also to understand from MEDITECH’s perspective what the future plan is for development, and what the roadmap ahead looks like,” he explained. “Especially when it comes to focusing on performance and efficiency this year, that seems to be the biggest focus and I'm glad that we know where MEDITECH is going, too, with it.
Seshan also noted the opportunity to learn practical lessons from providers who are using MEDITECH solutions.
“The other thing I really like is networking with physicians — a lot of physicians for various organizations CMOs CMIOs — people that are in the trenches doing stuff explaining what kind of use they have for MEDITECH and how they use it in different ways.”
Dr. Jason Touhey of Berkshire Health pointed to the accessibility of MEDITECH software developers as a key benefit to our partnership.
“What I find in working with MEDITECH on a regular basis is that they are listening to our feedback and our suggestions. They really want to know what we like about the system, what we don't like about the system, and how they can make it better. The fact that the developers are hearing that feedback, the actual programmers who are working on the design of things, I think that's the thing about MEDITECH that is probably what we like the best — just this idea that we have a direct line to people who are working on the software and they really do want to hear what we're saying.”
This kind of communication has allowed Touhey to learn about new functionality within Expanse, he explained.
“When we were talking about transitions to the long-term care system that MEDITECH is developing right now, I said, ‘You know, I’d love to be able to see a different view on the discharge transfer,’ and [Lead Software Designer] Jess Chartoff pulled me aside and said, ‘You actually can do that — I'll send you an email on how you can set that up.’”
Touhey added that when he logged into his system after talking with Chartoff, he noticed how to change the setting.
“This is exactly what I've been looking for — I didn't even know it could do this,” he said. “It was really nice to be able to express that I really wish it did this, and then have someone say actually it does.”
The spirit of collaboration and innovation continues at MEDITECH, and we look forward to hearing from you about your successes and challenges — be sure to register for upcoming events like MEDITECH LIVE in September, and contact your support team with any questions.
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