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Using PRISMA to Create Better Patients Records

20 July 2021
Blog

eClinicalWorks

ZEID Medical Group - Headline

How Zeid Medical Group leverages the power of interoperability

Zeid Medical Group runs women’s health and pediatric clinics in Tyler and Longview, Texas, that serve about 1,000 patients each month. Like any busy medical practice today, they see a mix of established and new patients who come from all walks of life and have medical histories that range from simple to complex.

One of the challenges in healthcare — given our mobile and globalized society — is locating comprehensive records for each patient. Over the last decade, that challenge has been answered by the creation and growth of two nationwide networks for interoperability — the exchange of patient data. Between them, the CommonWell^® Health Alliance and Carequality^® can deliver records from any medical facility or provider who is part of one or both systems.

But for Zeid Medical Group and tens of thousands of other practices, getting access to records is only the first step in delivering quality care. The more critical question is how providers can make sense of the flood of information available to them.

The PRISMA difference

Addressing that next step is where PRISMA, the health information search engine from eClinicalWorks, can make the difference. PRISMA sorts the records of each patient into a timeline view. Physicians can see at a glance what services have been provided, where, when, and by whom. They can search that record — using keywords or common abbreviations — to locate diagnoses, treatments, medications, and more.

Annabel Cruz, practice manager at Zeid Medical Group, said the practice has been successful using PRISMA to obtain records from primary care physicians as well as from their patients’ emergency room visits, even when the patient may not recall on which day they went to the ER.

PRISMA has made office workflows more efficient, Cruz said, enabling the practice to cut patient wait times by 50% or more.

“We’ve eliminated that time of having to call the hospital,” Cruz said. “We’ve stopped having nurses call to get medical records, having to have patients sign medical release forms, and then having to fax those records over.”

Changing patients’ and providers’ lives

With PRISMA in place, Cruz said, it takes just a few minutes from the time a query is sent until the information arrives. In just the first few weeks of using PRISMA, Zeid Medical Group has been able to obtain data from half a dozen other providers in the area, including CHRISTUS Mother Frances Hospital, one of the major medical facilities in Tyler.

The difference can be seen in better quality of life for patients and providers.

In one recent case, Cruz noted, a woman came to the Zeid clinic with few records and could not recall whether she had had a hysterectomy. A PRISMA query quickly established that she had, allowing providers better to determine the source of the pain she was experiencing and successfully treat her.

“It also helps prevent providers being burned out from that long wait time,” Cruz said. “With PRISMA, they can quickly go in, get the records they need, and continue on with their day.

To learn more about PRISMA, book a demo today.