This year the 2020 National Conference hosted by eClinicalWorks® looked a little different since it took place entirely virtually, from October 28th-30th. The conference had over 15,000 attendees signing in from all 50 states. With hands-on product training and nearly 80 educational sessions on topics including MIPS, population health, Messenger, and telehealth, the conference was a tremendous success. The National Conference is when speakers announce new eClinicalWorks features and enhancements, so we made sure some of our team members logged in online to check it out! Here's what we gathered from this year's eClinicalWorks National Conference.
CONTINUED COMMITMENT TO INTEROPERABILITY FOR 2021
Interoperability is essential every year but has really been a buzzword for 2020. We chatted with our eClinicalWorks Trainers, who attended the conference to learn some of the most critical updates:
- Consent and state or regional requirements are necessary for opting in or out
- With on-demand clinical data exchange when a patient arrives, the system will now send a query to all sites, and they retrieve CCDA
- eClinicalWorks CCDA will now go out daily
- Only locked notes are available for on-demand
- The front office can now view appointments, mark patients enrolled or not for structured data, and CommonWell will verify outstanding issues to mark once the patient arrives
- In the Progress Notes, the right chart panel now displays eEHX, field merging, and record importing
Speakers featured several updates that eClinicalWorks hasn't rolled out yet. The features that are coming soon include:
- PSAC controls: Patient-level PSAC, Manual PSAC at each encounter, and Advanced PSAC based on Visit Type, Facility, or Provider (this will be important for PSAC records to stay protected since consent is currently the only option)
- When using healow Insights: now charge for PRIZMA, eClinicalWorks' healthcare search engine.
- SMART on FHIR is a provider-centric app (it is currently in the pilot stages, but will be great for social determinants of health. This app will allow the provider to directly get patient resources for items such as meal services or transportation straight from the Progress Notes.)
healow CHANGES
In the keynote address on Wednesday, October 28th, eClinicalWorks' CEO, Girish Navani, highlighted several healow features. Navani explained healow's secure text for lab results, the ability to auto send configuration progress notes to physicians, and the newly added modules relating to Chronic Care Management and Transition Care Management. Last, he explained how documents regarding PRIZMA and one-patient records could be downloaded from healow insights.
PRIZMA is a great tool to do directly to specific software areas, including treatment or plan pages. PRIZMA features a high-level search functionality, meaning "EKG" will look for EKG and ECG. Searching "Echo" will show results for Echo and Echocardiogram. And the search query provides actionable links to view direct areas of charts where that specific search lives. Currently, PRIZMA is only pulling CareQuality and CommonWell but will eventually pull data from Payer and HIE. Users will need to rerun product activation if they're already activated to trigger PRIZMA.
In a later session, the healow spotlight focused on how healow TeleVisits provide "in-office quality with online ease." The speaker provided an email address for TeleVisit questions and concerns, explained when the visit link is live and accessible, and suggested using healow Analytics for any audit information, including the time of visit. The speaker flirted with Group Visits, only to mean "they are coming."
Another session focused on healow's digital resilience for the patient check-in experience. As healow check-in is becoming increasingly popular, it isn't a surprise a session focused on this topic:
- Customizable "I have arrived" response for practice-specific safety protocols
- Facility-based check-in for "I have arrived."
- Healow check-in available in Spanish (auto-based in communications settings)
- No additional cost to using healow check-in, only the fee of the messages
Additional healow updates to look for in 2021 include:
- Updates to the healow Insights Panel
- Ease of online appointment booking with healow Open Access
- Continued reinvention and expansion of TeleVisits - including Group Visits
- Healow's secure 2-factor authentication secure text messaging feature
- Additional features such as reviewing medications and adding comments are great since patients can look in medicine cabinets at home and enter comments themselves
- eClinicalWorks has added recurring consent for procedures
- eClinicalWorks has added screenings for depression and tobacco
- Complete customization of the payment screen is now available
- eClinicalWorks has made map navigation easier
- Patient notifications may now be color-coded and assigned to staff members
CODING CHANGES
There are a few essential E&M coding guideline changes for 2021 to be aware of:
- Timestamps and time-based coding will be available to document start and stop times, including Medical Decision Making.
- You will get activation code V2 via a case.
- V11.50 will be available on an on-demand activation and will not require a code
- You will request a ticket under EMR "Other."
- "Worsening" will be the only recognized phrase for V2 coder risk.
PAYMENTS
They made several exciting announcements regarding payment changes for 2021. Patient payments are made much more accessible now because of the global costs integrated system, TSYS:
- Virtual payment options such as activating payment processing with the global payments integration feature will be available
- Chip-enabled EMR payment options will be available
- There will be no cost for V2, just put in a ticket for the license key and enter for clients by on-demand integration
- Payments setup is based on the guarantor
- Newly added statement code inpatient statements
- Patients can make payments using the statement code
- The patient-level card on file will be available in V11.50
- The speaker spotlighted the workflow of Kiosk payment
"THE FUTURE OF HEALTHCARE IS A CONNTECTED SYSTEM"
How relevant for 2020. Last year at the 2019 National Conference, the speakers focused on how eClinicalWorks has provided a connected system for 20 years and how proper utilization of a connected EHR system like eClinicalWorks can improve patient engagement, lower administrative burdens, and enhance patient care. This year's conference focused on how eClinicalWorks and healow have "changed the world of healthcare with their new and existing healthcare IT solutions." The eClinicalWorks 2020 National Conference also focused on healow RPM, Chronic Care Management solutions, billing changes, tips and tricks to reduce physician burnout, and how healthcare practices of all kinds can benefit in 2021.
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