How Bright Oaks Pediatrics Provides Patients Quality Pediatric-Specific Experiences

Challenge:

· Improve quality of care through a pediatric specific EHR technology

Solution:

· OP

Results:

· Access to customized pediatric templates, pediatric clinical resources and an entire community of passionate pediatricians to improve overall quality of care

· Enhanced workflow efficiency including 50 percent decrease in documentation time

Located in Bel Air, MD, Bright Oaks Pediatrics serves a rural and suburban population of approximately 7,000 patients. With three physicians, four certified pediatric nurse practitioners, and more than 10 staff members, the practice is dedicated to providing quality pediatric-specific care to its patients.

Entering The World Of EHRs

When Bright Oaks made the transition from paper charts to EHRs nearly eight years ago, the practice selected athenahealth as its vendor of choice. At the time, the practice felt any EHR would greatly benefit its providers, staff, and patients and were eager about the opportunity. However, given that EHRs were still a relatively new commodity, Bright Oaks soon discovered it was one of only two pediatric offices using athenahealth’s platform.

“The main challenge with athenahealth was not having any tools, solutions, or templates that were pediatric specific,” says Jessica Zeller, a certified pediatric nurse practitioner at Bright Oaks Pediatrics. “Another doctor and I spent countless hours creating our templates by hand. After which, those templates were shared to other pediatric offices through the EHR system.”

A Need For Peds

After seven years of sticking with the provider, Bright Oaks reached its final straw nearly two years ago. “athenahealth completely reformed its whole profile in 2015. They called it a streamlined process, but it was not easy to understand and it felt like we were starting from square one again,” says Zeller. “Over the years, we realized how we could benefit from a pediatric-specific system and decided that the timing was optimal to find one and implement it.”

Bright Oaks then conducted market research on pediatric EHRs, ultimately deciding on OP. “OP was the provider that fit our needs the best,” says Zeller. “With athenahealth, we had to keep arguing with them to include important pediatric metrics like BMI and BP percentiles, whereas that and other important features are just common practice in OP’s solution.”

No Looking Back

Six months after implementation, Bright Oaks providers and staff are certain they made the right choice for itself and its patients.

“The resources found directly within OP’s system, as well as the pediatric community that comes with being a user of the solution, have been tremendously helpful,” says Zeller. “Yes, we can click one button and get access to a clinical article, but we also have the opportunity to connect with other pediatricians, bounce ideas off each other and give each other advice. Something we definitely weren’t able to do before with a general EHR.”

OP has also helped improve workflow efficiency at Bright Oaks while ensuring quality for its patients.

“I am a thorough documenter, and OP’s ease of use and pediatric templates have helped me decrease my documentation time by 50 percent,” says Zeller. “With OP, I also experience appropriate evidence-based guidance in documentation. This means every time I select a template, I am not only 100 percent confident my documentation is going be accurate, it will depict exactly what I would say to my patients as well.”