Small and Midsize Physician Practices More Productive Using HP Technology Solutions

Today's healthcare organizations face pressures to improve patient safety, increase staff efficiency, and reduce costs. HP and its partners help healthcare delivery organizations achieve these goals faster, smarter and more effectively, leading to a healthier bottom line.

Capital Region Orthopaedic Group

Capital Region Orthopaedic Group (CROG) is an 18-physician practice based in Albany, N.Y. The group is working to make medical care truly patient-centric with completely digital operations. Faced with the challenge of integrating practice management, electronic medical records, digital X-rays and an ambulatory surgery center into a seamless system, CROG knew that individual components from multiple vendors was a recipe for disaster. It wanted one solution and one partner responsible for its success.

Utilizing a front-end health information system, a Picture Archival Communications System (PACS) is being deployed on HP technology, effectively turning CROG's operation into a paperless environment. X-rays are now stored and accessed digitally, via Tablet PCs, rather than on film. The digital images are also being integrated with individual patient records, resulting in a much more efficient office management system.

Ray DeCrescente, chief technology officer at CROG, presented all the specifications to HP, which designed the entire solution. HP made recommendations to ensure system redundancy and helped as an advocate with software partners. Without the suggested improvements, a system that didn't meet the physicians' needs could have been introduced.

"We believe the best way to make medical and orthopedic practice patient-centric is to have a truly digital base of operations that ties together and fully integrates all parts of the practice. For everyone in the organization to have immediate access to all the information in a chart or X-ray file will make a huge difference from a patient care perspective. From a business perspective, we're looking forward to the day when employees are sitting at their desks working instead of walking around looking for a chart or X-ray." said David Quinn M.D., Capital Region Orthopaedic Group.

The medical facility is leaving behind an outdated practice management system for billing and scheduling, paper medical records and X-ray film. With all records, data and X-ray on a digital level, a physician will access patient data from a Tablet PC at any point in the network. Expected enhancements include faster, smoother handling of patients, significant workflow improvements, fewer medical errors and no lost paper charts.

"We are extremely confident in the ability of the HP team to carry out its role in our partnership. They have proven to be very creative problem solvers, and we are confident in the infrastructure solution of this digital world we trying to create," said Quinn.

Central Utah Multi-Specialty Clinic

Located near Provo, Central Utah Multi-Specialty Clinic (CUMC) - which has 350 employees, including 59 physicians - teamed with HP and Allscripts Healthcare Solutions as strategic partners. Through this partnership, they developed an electronic medical records system and equipped physicians with HP iPAQ Pocket PCs or Tablet PCs and the Allscripts software solution. With the efficiency gains, physicians now have the opportunity to spend about 25 percent more time with patients. Patients are also more involved in their care as they look at what the doctor is doing either on the mobile device or on the HP d310 Business Desktop PC found in each exam room.

Physicians at CUMC are using HP iPAQ Pocket PCs to dictate notes instead of the traditional tape recorder method. Electronic files wirelessly move on for transcription and reports are completed by afternoon. At the imaging center, customers often get a call back of their results before they have arrived home from their appointment.

"The technology advances implemented at the clinic are redefining healthcare. It sounds like a too good to be true story, but we're living it. HP, with the integration of Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, is a valued partner in making it happen," said Jamie Steck, director of IT, Central Utah Multi-Specialty Clinic. "Before we started this project, I had worked primarily with another vendor, but I just wasn't getting the service I thought I deserved. With HP's proactive approach, I have people helping me with suggestions and who are always responsive to my needs."

The technology in place at CUMC includes HP ProLiant servers, approximately 150 HP d310 Business Desktop PCs, HP nx7000 and Evo 800 notebooks, Tablet PCs and 60 HP iPAQ Pocket PCs and 45 HP LaserJet printers. A return-on-investment study after the first year showed a $1 million savings immediately and an anticipated five-year savings of $8 million. The savings are compounded with time as old processes are replaced and growth can be accommodated with the system currently in place.

"We have a saying at the clinic called 'IDDUINEM,' which means, 'if doctors don't use it nothing else matters.' With the HP iPAQ Pocket PCs and Allscripts Healthcare Solutions software, doctors not only use it, they save time and money with simplified processes," said Steck.

Fresno Heart Hospital

Fresno Heart Hospital opened the fall of 2003 as a specialty hospital created to meet the growing cardiac needs of central California. The 48-physician hospital is a physician partnership with Community Medical Centers and was established to improve cardiovascular care in the community.

Located in a brand new facility built from the ground up, the hospital had both the challenge and luxury of creating a state-of-the-art technology infrastructure to launch and support its operational needs. Paul Barlow, network administrator for Fresno Heart Hospital, designed a network standardized on HP technology solutions with HP ProLiant servers and storage, HP Business Desktop PCs, Notebook PCs, Altiris, SIMS and leasing from HP Financial Services.

With the new network, Barlow was able to securely manage online patient documentation, medical images from a Picture Archival Communications System (PACS) are stored for viewing from any workstation in the facility and HP servers support a voice over Internet Protocal (VoIP) solution. Nurses work on the wireless network with Compaq notebook PCs on carts to do chart updates while visiting the patient rooms. With wireless charts, physicians can view information from home through the virtual private network (VPN) and see new data in real time.

"While designing our infrastructure from the ground up, a standardized network was an obvious choice. There were a number of reasons we partnered with HP. The hardware has superior engineering and HP support is awesome," said Paul Barlow, network administrator, Fresno Heart Hospital. "We chose a 100 percent HP infrastructure. Some medical vendor solutions came with non-HP servers, but we quickly migrated them over to HP. We didn't want to deal with the poor support issues that we experienced with our previous vendor."

HP Tablet PC: Just what the doctor ordered

With 13,000 patients and a thriving medical practice in one of the fastest-growing areas of north Houston, Stephen Fischer, M.D., strives to be as productive as possible.

Since he opened his practice in 1987, Fischer has used technology to automate and simplify elements of his practice, freeing him to see more patients and spend more time with them.