Rural health care organizations and their needs are rapidly evolving. At the Cerner Health Conference 2017, these five CommunityWorks sessions will explore how empowering rural health systems can help shape the changing health care landscape today and in the future.
1. Early Detection and Prompt Treatment of SIRS/Sepsis (Session #712)
Amanda Lankford, director of quality and risk management at Western Missouri Medical Center
Julie Menke, clinical informatics strategist at Western Missouri Medical Center
In Fall 2016, Western Missouri Medical Center (WMMC), in partnership with Cerner CommunityWorks, implemented an integrated, partially automated process for early detection of SIRS and sepsis. In this session, WMMC leaders will discuss the significant improvements they've seen. They'll also discuss next steps to fully automate detection by implementing St. John Sepsis Agent, which will also provide data abstraction. Amanda Lankford and Julie Menke will cover how WMMC identified the need for early detection as well as the implementation process and current results.
Amanda is the director of quality and risk management for this 84-bed hospital, including a Behavioral Health Unit and numerous clinics. She has 13 years of experience in nursing leadership, long-term care and acute care, as well as consulting for Long Term Care Regulatory Compliance.
Julie is the nursing leadership of clinical informatics at WMMC. She has experience in clinical and nursing leadership, as well as experience building for various EHRs and nursing educator programs.
2. CAH Formula for Keeping Patients in Their Communities (Session #362)
Jeff Tindle, chief executive officer at Carrol County Memorial Hospital
Rural hospitals have struggled the past few years dealing with aging and declining populations, as well as declining reimbursement. Five years ago, in an effort to provide patients with care in their own community, Carroll County Memorial Hospital (CCMH) began expanding outpatient clinical services and adding hospital services, including surgery, wound care and expanded rural health clinics. In this presentation, Jeff Tindle will discuss CCMH's extraordinary results, including meeting its 2017 goal to provide 150 surgeries in just the first 90 days. Jeff will share some of these success stories and recommend ways to grow any hospital using technology and minimal added risk.
Jeff Tindle began his service at CCMH as associate administrator and chief financial officer in 2007 and became CEO in 2011.
3. By the Numbers: Using Clinical Analytics to Improve Patient Outcomes and Clinician Adoption (Session #327)
Dr. Michelle Flemmings, chief medical information officer and EMS medical director at Pagosa Springs Medical Center
Pagosa Springs Medical Center (PSMC), a small critical access level 4 trauma center in southwest Colorado, used Cerner Millennium EHR data reports to improve ED clinical workflow and patient outcomes for sepsis, trauma, MI and CVA. In this session, Dr. Michelle Flemmings will discuss these outcomes, as well as how PSMC used some of that same data and KPIs for door-to-doctor, door-to-treatment and door-to-disposition time to demonstrate these significant improvements to providers, which increased their adoption.
Flemmings has more than 20 years of experience as an actively practicing ED physician and has spent two years as chief medical information officer at PSMC.
4. 10 Minutes That Matter: Allen County Regional Hospital's Path Down the Yellow Brick Road (Session #809)
Patty McGuffin, chief nursing officer at Allen County Regional Hospital
Fred Larson, clinical informatics coordinator at Allen County Regional Hospital
In this session, Allen County Regional Hospital (ACRH) leaders will describe four workflow processes changed to improve patient outcomes. ACRH leadership will discuss how to utilize macros to build specific physician documentation screens to decrease physician time spent in charts, as well as how accurate and consistent labeling of notes can decrease physician time spent looking for notes in charts. Patty McGuffin and Fred Larson will also cover how training physicians to utilize Cerner's Dynamic Documentation will ease their work flow and decrease time spent in charts.
Patty McGuffin is the chief nursing officer and executive overseeing the facility EHR program. Her time at ACRH has been spent as a surgical nurse, surgery department manager and director of risk and quality management.
Fred Larson is the clinical informatics coordinator and is also the director of respiratory therapy and sleep disorders at ACRH.
5. From Registration to Revenue: Designing and Implementing for Optimal Outcomes (Session #325)
Ashley Allers, revenue cycle director at Van Diest Medical Center
In this presentation, Ashley Allers will discuss how focusing on outcome-driven business targets drove the design-and-build decisions associated with a new implementation and optimization at Van Diest Medical Center (VDMC). She'll explore how real-case testing based on financial class and coding was used to validate design and build, as well as how reports are used in the organization to monitor and improve system.
As revenue cycle director at VDMC, Ashely Allers manages overall operations and accountability for the performance of the revenue cycle.
Cerner Health Conference (CHC) is Cerner's annual, industry-leading health care event, taking place this year from Oct. 9-12 at the Kansas City Convention Center. To learn more or to register for the conference and sign up for education sessions, visit the CHC website.
