Hi Ted, 100 more mammography screenings completed in Parker, Colorado

Hi Ted,
We are working out the bugs re: the reporting details, but we completed about 100 mammos during a 1 month clinic wide (September) PDSA cycle. Now approx. 100 out of 180 orders have been completed. Just another great example of how the EMR and registry management can impact quality and how impressive our HealthTRAC IT team and the team at Parker is. The patients have to feel that we care about their individual health and are benefitting by getting their screenings done.

When I spoke at the ONC Annual meeting on November 17, 2011, one of the slides I created to illustrate the impact patient and family engagement in health information technology had to be cut for space reasons, and it was this one:

Wish you were here, Kaiser Permanente Parker, Colorado Medical Office

I was using the image to illustrate how a health care system enabled by health information technology is better for the environment. Ultimately this image didn’t convey this message as well as an image of the Colorado Springs medical office did in the 15 seconds allotted to each slide.

However, I now get to use this image to convey an equally compelling message, courtesy of Brent Arnold, MD ( @bmamd2 ), which is the result, quoted above, of leveraging health information technology AND teams to multiply the effectiveness of physicians, staff, and patients in saving lives. That’s what it means above when he says “clinic wide” above.

You can learn about how this works and what Brent’s team has been doing in this post (see: “Day 3, Population Care, KP Colorado : Care gaps are the currency (and we want to go broke)” ).

The medical literature contains plenty of references to “missed opportunities” in prevention, and accompanying sadness that they continue to exist. I’m writing this post to show that the commitment continues to not miss any opportunities whether they come in an e-mail, telephone, or in the office, it is possible to track success, and physicians, nurses, all staff, and patients, can solve problems in health care formerly thought unsolvable. I’d say that’s impressive, Parker!

Ted Eytan, MD