Training Series
Series Overview
This series introduced practical changes in workflow to help primary care practices:
- Make the best use of EMR functionality
- Improve quality of care
- Prepare to be recognized as a patient-centered medical home
The course was designed for primary care organizations using a full-featured EMR.
| Series Kickoff— Hosted by | Understand the current challenges to primary care—and assess your organization's readiness to turn your EMR into a key survival tool. Handouts | |
| Session 2— Hosted by Ted Eytan, MD MS MPH | Qualifying to be a “medical home” means attending to many aspects of care coordination that are not currently reimbursed—and are therefore things we frequently overlook. How can we find the time to enhance communication with our patients and increase their access to our care without simultaneously reducing our availability to provide other equally essential services, such as chronic illness care or making sure everyone is properly immunized? We will spend the first half of the hour discussing these issues with Dr. Ted Eytan, a nationally recogonized expert on using EMR technology to enable patients to participate more fully in their own care. We will then turn our attention to applying key points of this discussion to your own clinical settings and brainstorming ways of improving immunization rates without overloading clinic operations. Medical Home Concept: Clinical Focus: | |
| Session 3— Presenter: Terri Calnan | Learn how local clinical teams are using, or attempting to use, their EMRs for care management. Please join the discussion with our two panel members. In the past, practices used stand-alone registries for patient tracking purposes. In the current age of EMR adoption, many practices are trying to use their EMR technology for managing patient populations, much like the functionality of a registry. Although EMR vendors tell potential buyers that their systems are equipped for patient tracking, the actual clinical usage of the EMR for care management is not as straightforward as one might expect. In this teleconference, share successes, challenges, and lessons learned in using EMRs for population-based care management. Medical Home Concept: | |
| Session 4— Panelists: Shin-Ping Tu, MD, MPH | In this session, we will feature community-based programs that have implemented care management strategies using evidence-based guidelines to improve colorectal cancer screening rates. While the discussion will center on different care management approaches for the topic of colorectal cancer screening, the key learning principles (such as developing care plans, monitoring follow-up, and assessing progress) are transferable to patient care in other clinical conditions. Medical Home Concept: Clinical Focus: | |
| Session 5— Panelists: Cynthia Ferrucci, MD | The 6th and 7th NCQA criteria for Medical Homes recognition are tracking labs and referrals. In this session, we will hear from two physician leaders who wrestled with the challenges of getting test results and referrals into their EMRs so they could be found before the patient arrived in the clinic to discuss the result with the ordering provider. Sound easy? It’s not. How should programs be set up to determine whether patients actually complete the test or referral, then get the results back to the ordering provider so that the information can be used for clinical decision-making? How do we prioritize which labs and referrals to track? Join the discussion with us. Medical Home Concept: | |
| Session 6— Panelists: David C. Dugdale III, MD | Join us for a panel discussion with two national experts on the full spectrum of issues surrounding medication management in a Medical Home. Managing patients’ medications in ambulatory care is ever more challenging. Patients are taking more medications, and many patients receive their medications from multiple providers. In this session, we will explore methods for determining at the beginning of an office visit what medications each patient is taking, and documenting that information in the EMR. We will also learn what additional information management tools will be available in the near future with e-prescribing. This is a session you will not want to miss. Medical Home Concept: Clinical Focus:
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| Special Forum— 9/22/09 | This special meeting featured many speakers. It focused on sharing accomplishments, challenges, and plans related to using EMRs in the effort to improve cancer screening and immunization rates. | |
| Session 7— Panelists: James Stout, MD MPH Joseph Wall, MHA, FACHE | The concept of a Patient-Centered Medical Home infers that patients will not only be willing, but also have the skills, to assume a greater self-management role for their chronic conditions and their own preventive care. Yet for many of our patients there is a major gap between the role we need them to play and what they are actually prepared to do. How do we help them bridge that gap? How can we encourage our patients to take greater responsibility for managing their own health, and what tools do they need to be strong partners in improving clinical outcomes? Join us for a discussion with three regional experts with experience in patient self-management support across a wide range of socio-demographic populations. We will explore what they have learned about involving patients in their own care. Medical Home Concept: Clinical Focus: | |
| Session 8— Panelists: Trudy Bearden, PA-C MSPA | When we installed our electronic medical records, we all thought reporting the data would just be a matter of pushing a button—quality information would magically appear. Nobody told us it would be something akin to exploring unmapped territory. Join us for a discussion with clinicians who have spent years untangling the mysteries of clinical reporting out of their EHRs. Learn what the term “data definition” really means, why computerized order entry is so important to outcomes reporting and—most important of all—how to turn your clinical reports into a source of revenue. If you are struggling to get reliable reporting information out of your EHR, you will want to hear from these seasoned explorers. Medical Home Concept: Clinical Focus: | |
