Community Health Centers Inc., a federally qualified community health center with 11 sites offering medical and dental care in central Florida, has won a 2014 Community Health Organization HIMSS Davies Award of Excellence for use of health information technology, particularly electronic health records.
The awards, given since 1994, are named in memory of Nicholas Davies, M.D., a practicing physician and a member of the Institute of Medicine’sCommittee on Improving the Patient Record report that facilitated improvements in EHRs. Davies died in an airplane crash in 1991.
Community Health serves about 53,000 patients annually. The organization uses its EHR to conduct pre-visit planning and better engage patients, resulting in nearly doubling the percentage of hypertension patients with blood pressure under 140/90. Medical and dental care data are linked in the EHR to reduce risks associated with dental surgery on patients with certain medical conditions. Community Health, which has a Level III patient-centered medical home recognition from NCQA, further has implemented policies for reviewing patient data to evaluate outcomes and adjust workflows.
The organization has created standardized processes for documenting patient education, patient engagement, care management and care coordination within the EHR. Initial baselines for documentation of self-management goals were 27 percent in 2012 for diabetics and 51 percent for medication adherence. In March 2014, the figures were 94 percent and 60 percent, respectively. In early 2013, the baseline for pre-visit planning documentation in the EHR for planned care outcomes was 49 percent and a year later it stood at 99 percent. Fifty-two providers have attested for EHR meaningful use.
HIMSS soon will announce Davies Awards winners for Enterprise, Ambulatory and Public Health organizations.
