Dedicated to Excellence in Health Care Management

Technology Optimization and Meaningful Use

AMS has worked with a variety of physician practices, hospitals and health systems on technology optimization projects of varying magnitude. We have conducted and coordinated projects involving selection, design and installation of equipment, systems and procedures including many stakeholders.   Our work consists of in-depth “eWorkflow” analysis—ensuring the system is operating in a way that is intuitive to how your organization works and thinks, providing process and staff/role recommendations, and offering hands-on support pre-, during, and post-implementation.

The core principles of our technology optimization workplan are founded on workflow analysis methodology. Understanding the following components of day-to-day system utilization allows AMS to provide recommendations that are unique to your clinic, department, or hospital:

  • How are staff using the technology? Ex. Order entry, documentation, practice management, etc.
  • How long does it take to capture the required information?
  • What type of hardware is being used to support the ease of entry for the staff and providers?
  • Do the reporting capabilities of the technology meet the needs of leadership?

For organizations with EHRs, AMS assists with optimizing the system to ensure that workflow and system flow are synchronized so that the most efficient and effective care can be delivered.  Technology is the driving force in healthcare today, and ensuring the EHR field and screen flow matches staff and provider workflow, not vice versa, is the number one best practice we can recommend.  This foundational rule has been the driving force in our client engagements.

AMS was one of the first state-selected Implementation and Optimization Organizations (IOO) under the HITECH Act. This provided us with the opportunity to assist over 100 independent and hospital-employed providers in Massachusetts to adopt, implement, and/or upgrade certified EHRs under a Federal grant. This grant was administered by the Massachusetts Regional Extension Center (REC)—a division of MeHI (Massachusetts eHealth Institute) and allowed us to work with practice sizes ranging from single providers to multi-specialty practice organizations of over 20 providers.  As an IOO, AMS assumed the role of project manager to take the burden and stress off the physician practice when implementing and optimizing new EHR technology as well as ensure that the practice knows where and how to satisfy the Meaningful Use criteria in order to obtain the CMS incentive dollars by successfully attesting for the Medicare and Medicaid Meaningful Use programs.

AMS is a project company and is engaged in hundreds of different projects each year. The successful implementation of any new technologies must be project-oriented and time sensitive to achieve its goals.