By Vanessa Orr

When KIDZ Medical Services first implemented the athenahealth EHR (electronic health record) and patient portal 18 months ago, the West Palm Beach multispecialty practice team wasn’t sure how different it would be from previous patient record-keeping iterations. However, a number of useful features have made it well worth the training time and investment, according to physician “super user” Matthew Ramirez, M.D., MS, FAAP, a board-certified pediatric hematologist/oncologist at KIDZ Medical Services, and whose office is located at the West Palm Beach location.

“Overall, it’s a game-changer,” Dr. Ramirez said. “All KIDZ Medical offices are now on the same EHR, which makes it easier to see the records of patients who see other KIDZ providers; it enables us to coordinate care better than ever before.” KIDZ Medical Services cares for neonatal, pediatric and women’s health patients across 15 office locations and 19 hospital partner sites throughout South Florida.

The athenahealth system allows users to coordinate and collaborate with other users, like sharing a patient’s treatment records or clinical notes from the patient’s pediatrician or primary care provider. The system makes it easy to transfer patient information into the system.

“With one click, you can update a patient’s records, which is especially helpful with long-term patients who may have a narrative in their notes; for example, how they presented with a specific disease, their medical history, comorbidity conditions they have and more,” said Dr. Ramirez, noting that other versions require providers to type or cut and paste the information.

“The ability to bring in historical information from previous notes without having to type everything out really helps with charting,” he added.

Time saving and convenience were two major draws for adoption of the athenahealth EHR. The system comes with a dictation tool, which makes it easier for physicians to document patient notes. It also features a portal that includes the doctor’s inbox, so that they can receive communications directly from patients and families, as well as other physicians throughout the KIDZ Medical enterprise.

However, Dr. Ramirez notes expanded access as the number one differentiator.

“The biggest advantage is that we have the ability to log in securely from outside the office, utilizing two-factor authentication,” he said. “Because the app is web-based, I can open it on a home computer or hospital computer system to see my calendar, communicate with my patients or whatever else I need. Now I can integrate my clinic work with my hospital work.”

Dr. Ramirez also credits athenahealth’s developers for their openness to new ideas in order to make the system even more useful. “I saw the opportunity to implement a quick fix that could save us time, so I sent the idea over to them. As a result, they were able to build us a template that I now use every day in clinic,” he said. “If you see something that can make the system work better, they’re open to making those updates.”

As a physician user, Dr. Ramirez has gone through additional athenahealth training, but he said that learning the system was not difficult for KIDZ’ office support staff. They adopted it quickly, and the EHR has since introduced operational efficiencies as well as an improved patient experience thanks to a user-friendly patient portal.

“It’s been well worth the time and effort to get everyone on board, and it’s made a very big difference in our patient care overall,” he added.