Hamden Pediatrics
How a smaller practice can reap big benefits from a pediatric focused EHR.
Small and medium-sized independent pediatric practices with 2 or 3 practitioners and equivalent staff have different types of challenges from the multi-location, larger practices. In a smaller operation, everyone – including doctors, nurses and business staff – must be ready to jump in to help when patient traffic demands it. Such is the case with Hamden Pediatrics, located in Hamden, Connecticut.
This very successful practice, launched 27 years ago, has about 2,500 active patients and is managed by 3 providers and a small support staff. The practice office manager, Sue Aprea, gives part of the credit for this efficiency – doing more with fewer people – to the pediatric focused EHR platform from PCC.
“While we have been a practice management client of PCC for the past 8 years, we have only recently begun using the EHR platform. The transition to the PCC EHR was very smooth because of their skill and patience. It’s in PCC’s DNA. They held our hand, never let us fail and gave us great support!”
Advantages of a Pediatric Focused EHR
“When we were searching for an EHR, we interviewed several vendors, in spite of the fact that we were already with PCC,” Aprea said. “We felt we needed to go through a due-diligence process in order to see what was available. Frankly, I was concerned about having to leave PCC because the support we were given and the people we worked with were outstanding.
“During the process, I was pushing our team to go with the PCC platform but as it turned out, I didn’t have to push very hard! The product is far superior to any other program in the marketplace.
“Because it is pediatric-specific, it has absolutely everything we need to manage both the medicine and business aspects of our practice. With a general medicine EHR, you have to tweak it in order make it work for pediatrics. This is not the case with the PCC platform. Everything we need in an EHR is there and this is a huge advantage. Immunization logic, sharing family histories among siblings, Bright Futures templates – these are part of the EHR flow, not ‘add on’ to make a couple sales.”
Training and On-Going Support Set PCC Apart from Others
Investing in an EHR platform is expensive and Aprea was determined to get their money’s worth, especially as it related to training and product support!
Unforeseen things happen in a busy pediatric practice and timely customer support from the EHR vendor is critical.
‘The on-going support from PCC is stellar,” she said. “I would be hard-pressed to find any company that has better customer support for an EHR system than PCC. Actually, we don’t feel we bought just the system. We bought the whole PCC process. This means that any time anything new happens in the pediatric world, we hear from them. I can also get valuable data from the ‘Practice Vitals Dashboard.’ This tool allows me to compare our data to national and regional pediatric benchmarks and it also helps me understand the connection between our clinical metrics and financial growth.
“PCC holds an annual Users’ Conference every year and since I am such a big geek, I love this conference! It consists of 3 days of classes and attendees can learn about any new aspects of the platform or get a refresher on any piece of the system. I have also gotten new information on trends in the pediatric world and even attended classes on the business of medicine where issues such as physician compensation are discussed. I highly recommend this users’ conference.
“The company also presents webinars on a regular basis and our doctors and I always take something of value from these online presentations. It is comforting for us to know that any type of new pediatric information will be shared with the PCC users within days after it becomes available. I can’t imagine any other EHR platform having this type of on-going support.
“I also talk to other pediatric practices about our EHR platform on a regular basis and several have come to our offices to see the system in action. I’m happy to say, they have all decided to go with PCC.”
The Intangibles are Also Important
It is clear that PCC clients feel more like members of an extended family.
“We talk to the team at PCC all the time,” Aprea said. “If we don’t call them, they call us to see how we are doing! The people at PCC are just exemplary. The company has an interesting hiring philosophy. They don’t necessarily hire people for their skills but rather they hire the right kind of people and then teach them the right skills.
“Plus, the founder of the company, John Canning, is a very charitable person who is trying to make a difference in the lives of children all over the world. This is someone you want to do business with and a company you want to be a part of. We are very proud to say we are PCC clients.”
