How Criterions helps the New York Firefighter Heart & Lung Institute care for 9/11 First Responders
Background
Robert Brown started his career as a New York Firefighter in 1996 and worked his way up as Lieutenant at the New York Fire Department, dedicating his life to helping others. He was amongst the First Responders after the horrific 9/11 event and saw firsthand how the hazardous toxic dust and chemicals effected the rescue and volunteer teams. They suffered tremendous damage to their physical and mental health during that time.
Mr. Brown wanted to give back to his firefighter community and founded the New York Firefighters Heart & Lung Institute in 2002. At that time, he was working for North Shore Cardiac Imaging as a Physician Assistant, and his newly founded institute was a part of the North Shore organization. New York Firefighters Heart & Lung is a medical center “designed by firefighters for firefighters” that offers the best healthcare experience for firefighter professionals and are dedicated to serving their needs and family’s needs every day. They specialize in cardiac and pulmonary testing, cancer screenings, orthopedics and much more.
Criterions Electronic Health Record and Practice Management solutions have been apart of their journey since 2014, making it possible for Mr. Brown to treat thousands of firefighters since. Mr. Brown separated New York Firefighters Heart & Lung from North Shore Cardiac Imaging in late 2022 and is now the sole provider at his institute, bringing the Criterions integrated EHR and PM solutions with him.
“Going into this and separating, I thought it was going to be really hard to get on board with an EMR and meeting all requirements we needed, but Criterions made it seamless and implementation got us up and running in no time.”
Long-Term Success
The costs to start a healthcare practice, large or small, are enormous. Affordability is a very important consideration when choosing the various software you need to run your office efficiently, especially when you are a sole provider like Mr. Brown who offers his services at minimal out of pocket expenses for his firemen and firewomen patients.
“It’s very affordable we think, even including features like bulk emailing and text messaging.”
For any practice to be successful in the long run, growth is essential. Expanding your services, hiring more office employees, or moving to a bigger office location, like Mr. Brown just did, are all crucial tactics for progressing your medical practice. When it comes to training new hires on EHR or PM systems, Criterions takes pride in providing an inclusive training program to our customers. Our training and education programs offer a variety of instructor-led training events and online resources to accommodate your needs, ensuring office staff members get the most out of utilizing our products.
“We like Criterions because it’s very easy to use and to train new hires on the software because it’s not as complex as other EHR systems. A lot of features and modules are easy to understand and make sense of in the Criterions system.”
Since implementing Criterions EHR & PM software, NY Firefighters Heart & Lung has been able to increase communication with their patients by utilizing the bulk email feature, email appointment reminders, and the patient portal. Their patients use the Criterions Patient Portal to view their medical records and results, schedule, and change their appointments online which has helped increase office workflow and patient engagement.
They’ve also seen a decrease of no-shows due to the flexibility of online scheduling capabilities for their firefighter patients, who are sometimes on duty in the firehouse for long shifts with limited time to call the practice during office hours if needing to reschedule or cancel their existing appointments.
“Overall, it’s been a good experience with Criterions. We almost never have any issues using the software. Support gets back to us in no time. Training department is always really helpful, and I would recommend their product.”
NY Firefighter Heart & Lung has helped thousands of firefighter professionals throughout their years and will continue to provide the best possible healthcare experiences for years to come. Together, Criterions will support their services as Mr. Brown grows his practice and takes on more patients by helping to improve patient engagement and experience, as well as increasing workflow efficiency for their office staff.
Fore more information on Mr. Brown's mission at The New York Firefighter Heart & Lung Institute, please visit their website at: https://www.fdnyheart.com/