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Local Success Stories

A Success Story from Riverton Family Health Center – Utah Physician Office

Riverton Family Health Center (RFHC) is an independent, physician-owned practice located in a growing, semi-rural community. Several years ago RFHC leased an electronic health record (EHR) system. System implementation was not successful and the practice lost money on the venture. In April 2005, RFHC decided to run through the EMR gauntlet again. Only this time, they started their search by becoming an active participant in the Doctor’s Office Quality - Information Technology (DOQ-IT) project sponsored by HealthInsight, the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization for Utah and Nevada.

Office manager, Ricky Dyson, led the effort. After determining practice-wide EMR needs and fixing current workflow problems, RFHC began looking at different EMR vendors. All staff, including doctors, billers, receptionists, and medical assistants were invited to be a part of this selection process. Dyson then determined comparative costs for each system for the first twelve months of operation. This analysis revealed almost identical costs so Dyson based the final decision on quality of technical support and RFHC’s relationship with the vendor representative.

Dyson reports that careful planning was well worth the effort. The transition from paper to EHR was smooth and the clinic reached a financial return on investment in less than a year. Medical assistant Heidi Monson says, "Patients get more efficient and better care with an electronic medical record.”

Having been through the EMR gauntlet twice, RFHC cautions other practices not to make decisions without careful planning, including staff input from all practice areas and lots of background work. Dyson also believes that HealthInsight played an important role in this second round of searching by giving them hope and providing structure for the process.