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Overview

Successful use of Health IT enabled Quality Improvement requires a strong organizational foundation. This includes understanding motivating factors as well as barriers, communicating the value of using Health IT to improve quality and outcomes, and building buy in and commitment throughout all levels of the organization. Resources in this section provide ideas and guidance on how to navigate this critical first step.

Using Health Technology to Improve Performance on Clinical Quality Measures
HITEQ Center
/ Categories: Health IT Enabled QI, Improving Performance

Using Health Technology to Improve Performance on Clinical Quality Measures

Experiences of HealthNet of Indianapolis, Winner of HIMSS Davies Community Health Organization Award

According to HealthNet's Case Study for their 2015 HIMSS Davies Award:

HealthNet’s mission is to improve lives with compassionate health care and support services, regardless of ability to pay. The organization was established in 1968 to provide much needed services to central Indiana’s inner-city neighborhoods. Through a network of health, dental, school-based and homeless sites, HealthNet provides care to more than 59,286 patients annually. In 2009, we began our journey to adopt electronic medical records (EMR) to improve patient care, clinical documentation and billing practices after choosing eClinicalWorks as our vendor. Using a phased approach to EMR “Go Lives”, it took almost 2 years to fully implement the EMR at all locations. Upon completion of the Go Live project at medical sites in 2011, HealthNet focused on using the new electronic technology to develop templates and reports and redesign workflows to improve performance on a selected set of clinical quality measures, which had previously been stagnant and far below national averages. After project implementation, improvements on the selected measure sets were dramatic, ranging from 4% improvement on measures that were already being done well, to 181% improvement on the lowest performing measures at baseline.

Resource Links

  • 2015 HIMSS Davies Community Health Award WinnerOverview of the winner, HealthNet, and their process.
  • Related Case StudyHealthNet in Indianapolis describes their experience leveraging IT to standardize care and improve patient outcomes. With the assistance of electronic health records and a variety of IT interventions, HealthNet has reduced low birth weights, improved care outcomes for pediatric patients, and significantly increased patient satisfaction.
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Tags: eCW quality improvement Case Study Data Monitoring Health IT Enabling QI EHR Optimization

Related Resources

Acknowledgements

This resource collection was compiled by the HITEQ Center staff with guidance from HITEQ Advisory Committee members and collaborators of the HITEQ Center.

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