How Criterions Helps the New York Firefighters Heart & Lung Institute Care for 9/11 First Responders

Background

Robert Brown became a New York City firefighter in 1996 and rose to the rank of Lieutenant. He was among the first responders at 9/11, and in the years that followed he watched the toxic dust and chemicals from that day take a lasting toll on the health of the rescue teams he served alongside — cardiac and pulmonary conditions especially.

In 2002, while working as a Physician Assistant at North Shore Cardiac Imaging, Brown founded the New York Firefighters Heart & Lung Institute. The institute describes itself as “designed by firefighters for firefighters,” and provides cardiac and pulmonary testing, cancer screenings, orthopedics, and related services to the firefighter community. Criterions has supported the institute’s EHR and practice management systems since 2014.

The Challenge

In late 2022, Brown separated the institute from North Shore to run it as its own independent practice. Splitting a practice out of a larger organization is one of the more disruptive things a provider can do to their operations — scheduling, billing, patient records, and day-to-day workflow all have to keep functioning through the transition, for a patient base with demanding, shift-based schedules that don’t leave much room for disruption.

Why Criterions

The institute had already been running on Criterions since 2014, so the separation was really a test of whether that system would hold up once it was the practice’s own — not something borrowed from a larger organization behind it. Brown expected the transition to be difficult.

Going into this and separating, I thought it was going to be really hard… but Criterions made it seamless and implementation got us up and running in no time.

Long-Term Success

Running as a sole-provider practice, affordability matters in a way it might not for a larger group — and Brown points to that as one of the things that’s kept the institute on Criterions.

It’s very affordable, we think, even including features like bulk emailing and text messaging.

The institute has used bulk email, appointment reminders, and patient portal access to increase how often it communicates with patients, and staff have seen fewer no-shows since firefighters — whose shift schedules don’t always cooperate with a fixed appointment slot — got more flexibility through online scheduling. Training has been straightforward as well:

We like Criterions because it’s very easy to use and to train new hires… not as complex as other EHR systems.

Looking Ahead

Now fully independent, the institute continues to serve the firefighter community it was built for — cardiac and pulmonary care, cancer screenings, and orthopedics, at a price point that works for a sole-provider practice. As Brown put it:

Overall, it’s been a good experience with Criterions… I would recommend their product.