Case Study: NY Firefighter Heart & Lung

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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 is still an active Lieutenant at the New York Fire Department to present day, 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/

Interested in learning how Criterions software can benefit your practice? Fill out the form below:

What is Practice Management Software

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What is Practice Management Software?

Practice management involves the decisions, actions and resources that ensure the day-to-day operations of your medical practice. Managing a healthcare practice can be arduous and time-consuming. In a single day, physicians and office staff may deal with administrative, regulatory, financial and technological tasks — on top of making sure patients get the best care possible. Practice Management Software helps manage your practice, patients, and is important with increasing workflow and patient engagement, but most importantly will help your office get paid.

Criterions cloud-based electronic health record comes fully integrated with practice management software you need to keep your office running efficiently. Whether you use a billing service or manage billing in-house, our EHR helps you receive payment faster.

Billing is streamlined with our electronic superbill, and our billing partners offer the best cloud-based billing solutions that can integrate directly with your EHR workflows. Intuitive charting, connections to labs and imaging centers, referrals, prescribing, document management, reporting, communication, and eligibility checks- Criterions does all this and more.

A few benefits of a cloud-based Practice Management Software includes:

Help patients find your services and book appointments online

Patients can search for and book appointments online from your Criterions Patient Portal.
Once a patient books an appointment, automatic email or text reminders are sent to them to help reduce missed appointments and reduce the time your staff has to spend on the phone.

Check insurance eligibility for patients directly from your EHR

Get paid for the appointments you schedule with patient health insurance verification that includes real-time connections to over 300 payers, and automated eligibility checks before a scheduled appointment.

Certified for PQRS and Meaningful Use to help you avoid penalties

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) offer EHR incentive payments for those who can attest to improving patient care with their Meaningful Use and PQRS programs — and payment penalties to those who cannot — if you are an eligible provider but haven't started participating in those programs.
To manage and report on criteria performance, Criterions has developed certified PQRS and Meaningful Use dashboards and reports.

Simplify your billing and increase revenue

Medical billing management and increasing revenue can be a challenge for any practice, but our cloud-based EHR and PM streamlines all these tasks so you can get paid faster and grow your practice.

Click here for more information on how Criterions Medical Practice Management Software makes delivering patient care easier for you and your staff, or please fill out the form below and a team member will be in touch shortly.

Why you should become FHIR API compliant

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What is FHIR API?

As part of the 21^st Century Cures Act, signed by Congress in 2016, a data standard called the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resource was created and supported by HL7 International. The intricacy of healthcare data was taken into consideration when developing FHIR, which uses a cutting-edge, web-based methodology to connect several distinct pieces. FHIR API involves the access and exchange of data from healthcare providers to their patients.

Consider how simple it is to find information in real-time on things like travel costs, hotel availability, or delivery tracking. The same goal of FHIR is to enable developers to create uniform "browser" applications that allow access to data regardless of the EHR operating system that supports the user's infrastructure.

FHIR Resources

The resource is key in this. A FHIR resource can be a standalone data packet with metadata, text, or specific data pieces. It can also be packaged into collections to produce clinical papers, much like the Consolidated Clinical Data Model. The SMART on FHIR API standard allows individuals to download their health records and share readily available health data. It also provides a health app interface based on open standards including HL7’s FHIR, OAuth2, and OpenID Connect. For example, the SMART on FHIR API is built into major EHR products, has been used by Apple to connect its Health App to hundreds of healthcare systems, and is used for apps launched on Microsoft products.

Advantages of FHIR API:

Focus on Patient’s Experience: When data is shared with patients, they have more control over their records, which boosts their confidence in healthcare services and practitioners.
Automated Data Structuring: Automated data structuring provides support for service providers and healthcare professionals. Data sharing between patients and providers results in a value-based strategy where the emphasis is on improved care coordination, patient experience, and management, as well as cost savings.
Enhanced Data Management: Data is stored in a variety of forms and is gathered from several sources with varying dimensions and volumes, including surveys, wearables, medical records, and claims data. By accessing real-time records, which guarantees data accuracy, FHIR helps to improve data management.
Efficient Collaboration: Patients receive a complete picture of their clinical data through FHIR. A good example is the Health app for iOS from Apple. It obtains patient information via FHIR from EHRs and other medical facilities, combines it with information from the user's phone, and creates a comprehensive picture of the patient's health.

We’re all used to the federal government creating directives that carry a “carrot & stick” approach, but when it comes to the FHIR API requirement, it’s just the stick. Practices can incur severe penalties for noncompliance. The good news is that Criterions has partnered with a 3^rd party organization to facilitate the requirements imposed- EMR Direct. Please click here for more information on EMR Direct.

For more information on FHIR API or to sign up, please fill out the form below.

Important Notices:

1) FHIR API went into effect for medical practices January 1^st, 2023.

2) There is a 90-day grace period before penalties can incur.

3) Additional information can be found here.

Why eFax Modules are Essential

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Criterions eFax HIPPA Compliant Module

There’s a high chance you are still sending faxes daily, which means you must have reasonable safeguards to ensure they are Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) eFax compliant and that all Protected Health Information being sent and received is safe.

Therefore, all employees should be aware of the HIPAA faxing rules and best practices that come with using traditional fax machines as there are significant obstacles for them to be declared secure enough for sensitive patient information.

Criterions eFax Module aligns with your Practice's medical fax processes utilizing the healthcare industry’s strictest data security standards

Criterions eFax Module enhances compliance with privacy and security rules – including HIPAA, the HITECH Act, and state regulations while streamlining your reporting for meaningful use and audit.

Benefits of using an eFax HIPPA Compliant Module with your Criterions EHR system includes:

Criterions eFax Module has a commitment to security with end-to-end encryption.
Criterions eFax Module safeguards sensitive information, such as patient health records transmitted by hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies, and follows HIPAA compliance.
Criterions eFax Module is integrated directly within the Criterions EHR, and you are provided notifications about each fax via email.
Includes unlimited storage, so you will no longer misplace faxes, and it keeps all your documents organized and always available.
When using the Criterions eFax Module, there is no more waste, no paper, and no more costs for maintaining your fax machine.

If you would like more information on the Criterions eFax Module to assist your office staff, please email our Sales Team or fill out the form below and we'll be in touch shortly.

Simplify Patient Visits with Order Sets

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“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.” — Hans Hofmann

The aim of any good Electronic Health Record (EHR) software is to allow providers to properly document patient care with accuracy and efficiency. If providers are given tools to make documentation easier, they are able to spend more quality time interacting with their patients discussing care and concerns.

What Are Order Sets?

There are some visits or diagnoses that can be described as typical in nature, for example a Well Care/Annual visits, in which order sets allow you to have preselected plan items such as lab orders, prescriptions, and procedures that can easily be applied to a visit with just two clicks. Each provider has the ability to create their own order sets based on their general workflow, and providers with frequently used plan items can also share their order sets with others.

To learn more about creating your own order sets and simplifying your workflow, please login to your Customer Support Center account below for the "Order Sets" instructions or fill out the contact form below to speak with our Support Team.

Support Center Login

Webinar: Criterions eFax Module & Lab Interface

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Your practice must ensure that all Protected Health Information being sent and received is safe according to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Criterions eFax Module & Lab Integration enhances compliance with privacy and security rules – including HIPAA, the HITECH Act, and state regulations which streamlines your reporting for meaningful use and audit.

Sales@Criterions.com