It’s Always Time to Switch for Value and Performance

Even when faced with evidence that changes are needed within their organization, many companies hesitate. That’s natural. Change, after all, usually involves expense, disruption, and risk.

But what if change means lowering expenses, minimizing disruptions, and reducing risks? Thousands of healthcare practices have discovered just that by choosing the comprehensive Electronic Health Record (EHR) and Practice Management (PM) solution from eClinicalWorks^®.

In just the last few years, thousands of practices have left their legacy EHR systems behind for two simple reasons: In an increasingly complex world, they cannot afford subpar performance and they can thrive with the power and performance eClinicalWorks offers.

A major health system takes a “Big Bang” approach

“We had been with a different vendor since 2011, and that vendor was really not providing us the comprehensive wraparound support that we needed,” said Dr. Howard Orel, President and CEO of Advocare, with hundreds of physicians and approximately 200 locations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

On June 24, 2019, the entire organization switched to eClinicalWorks in a “Big Bang” implementation. Extraordinary coordination occurred that day, and tens of thousands of decisions were made and made correctly, Dr. Orel noted. Advocare implemented the full range of healthcare IT solutions they needed, from the core EHR/PM system to Population Health solutions.

“The people behind the company at eCW,” Dr. Orel said, “really gave us confidence that they would partner with Advocare to help us succeed in all our future endeavors.”

Weathering the COVID-19 pandemic

The thousands of practices that chose eClinicalWorks before the COVID-19 pandemic struck were surely more focused on the right tools for daily documentation than what resources they might need in the event of a global pandemic. But when the pandemic did strike, eClinicalWorks practices quickly recognized they had the tools and flexibility they needed to not just survive office closures and slowdowns but thrive.

“We opened a rural health clinic in August of 2018, and we were on another EHR at the time, and it wasn’t meeting our needs,” said Rae Cummings, Chief Operating Officer at Nevada’s Boulder City Primary Care. We had a system where we were unable for a year and a couple of months to post any payments whatsoever in our system.”

Less than a year after Boulder City Primary Care switched to eClinicalWorks, the pandemic struck. While the practice hadn’t yet implemented a telehealth solution, they were able to do so within 48 hours, enabling them to continue to see patients.

“We actually saw an increase in volumes for the month of March, April, and May 2020,” Cummings said. “With the capability that eClinicalWorks provided we were able to do that.”

Remote training eases a transition

Dr. Cindy V. Padre runs a small pediatrics practice in Pearl River, New York. Careful research led her to eClinicalWorks, and when COVID-19 struck just weeks later, remote training confirmed her choice had been the right one.

“The initial plan was to have a live trainer come to my practice,” said Dr. Padre, who was initially concerned at the idea of remote training. “But I was pleasantly surprised. It was as if the trainer was right there next to me guiding me.”

eClinicalWorks worked with each member of Dr. Padre’s staff, tailoring training to varying levels of technical expertise. Dr. Padre has also been able to make effective use of eCW University.

“I was able to get a sense of how to start off an encounter, how to put in a patient for an appointment,” she said. “I was able to start seeing patients actively on the day I went live.”

A healthcare IT partner for the long term

As thousands of practices have learned, choosing eClinicalWorks is about much more than picking an EHR. It’s establishing a long-term relationship where your healthcare IT partner puts your needs, goals, and success first.

Pandemics come and go. Needs always change. But eClinicalWorks’ commitment to delivering industry-leading healthcare IT solutions remains constant.

Change can be challenging, and it’s easy to conclude that the time isn’t quite right to move to a new EHR. But when a choice is this clear — value that drives the long-term success of your practice — it’s always the right time to switch.