MEET OUR HEALTHCARE TECHNOLOGY AWARD FINALISTS: UC Health Primary Care Dashboards

Dr. Cogorno teamed up with Epic analyst Ashley Jackson to build custom Cogito Radar Dashboards that could display metrics for the entire patient panel on one screen.

Nov 7, 2019

UC Health Primary Care Dashboards Team

By Bryan Remke

 

Dr. Steven Cogorno had a problem. He needed a way to quickly identify patients in his panel that needed immunization, cancer screening, diabetes management, and general preventative care.

 

Opening and reviewing each chart wasn’t an option — it was just too inefficient. As an Epic Physician Builder, he knew there was a better way.

 

Dr. Cogorno teamed up with his colleague at UC Health, Epic analyst Ashley Jackson, to build custom Cogito Radar Dashboards that could display metrics for the entire patient panel on one screen. The dashboard included drill-down reports to quickly identify every patient that needed an intervention. After a few months of prototyping and validation, the dashboards were ready to be deployed to the entire UC Health Primary Care Network.

Ashley Jackson, System Analyst; Kristin Hill, System Analyst; Jay Brown, SVP, Chief Information Officer; UC Health

These dashboards serve a joint purpose: they allow providers to quickly spot trends in their practice patterns, and then identify the patients who may need assistance. Once a provider has determined areas for improvement, he or she can view a report of the patients in need of health screenings or assistance, and then use the dashboard’s bulk communication tool to alert the patient.

 

The UC Health primary care dashboards were created with a modular design, using three rows of highly-customizable, interchangeable components. The first row provides a snapshot of the provider’s patient panel. The components in the second row track UC Health system goals for four key areas: cancer screening, diabetes care, immunizations, and general wellness. The third row is reserved for custom quality improvement metrics identified by each clinic’s team of providers.

 

For example, one clinic has chosen to display metrics to help identify patients who have challenges getting to their visits. Another clinic has a high number of patients with depression and has chosen to focus on tracking improvements in PHQ-9 scores. The data is available on demand, with the click of a button.

 

UC Health Physician Builder’s and IS&T collaboration has proven to be successful model for improving care within our community.

The success of the primary care dashboards is proven by the numbers: between the fourth quarter of 2018 and the second quarter of 2019, improvements were noted in 20 UC Health primary care sites. Example metrics include:

  • A1c testing for diabetic patients improved by 3% – 9%
  • A1c levels at <9% for diabetic patients improved by 2% – 5%
  • Immunization screenings increased by 10% – 32%

Not only do these improvements improve workflow and care management for primary care providers and their staff, they also enable better outcomes for a healthier patient population.

 

The Health Collaborative is excited to honor the UC Health Primary Care Dashboards team as finalists for the 2019 Inspire Healthcare Technology Award.

Better tools for physicians and other providers translate to better health for all in our region – how inspiring.

 

Visit our News page for more articles profiling the work of our award finalists for the 2019 Inspire Healthcare Dinner and Awards Celebration.

 

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