In this episode of the MEDITECH Podcast, we explore the real-world impact of interoperability on clinical workflows. Join host Allison Palltroni as she sits down with Andrea Douglas, PA-C, a Physician Assistant at Emanate Health, to discuss how the implementation of MEDITECH’s national data exchange network, Traverse Exchange, is transforming patient care. Andrea shares her firsthand experience moving away from manual data management—like chasing faxes and paper records—and into a more efficient, patient-centered workflow using the Consolidated Patient Summary. We discuss how having discrete data directly at her fingertips helps her make faster, more informed clinical decisions and why patients feel more valued when their providers arrive prepared with their full medical history.
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She had a very complicated history, and I was
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able to find her, and I was able to
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see the names of the other doctors that she had seen that she wanted to continue
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care with. I could see her recent hospital records.
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We were able to get the referrals right away, get her
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continuing some of the really urgent things that needed to be
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followed up on. And I think that's what we're trying to
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do.
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Welcome to another episode of the "Meditech Podcast." We're the leader in
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healthcare technology, empowering you to be a more informed healthcare
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consumer and provider. Hear the latest from our friends and colleagues on
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topics we think you should know about.
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Alison Paltroni here, product manager on the Meditech side.
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I oversee our Traverse Exchange network.
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And I am joined today by Andrea Douglas, a physician assistant in
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family practice at Emanate Health.
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Andrea and her colleagues have been using Meditech's national data exchange
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network, Traverse Exchange, to help manage patient information.
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Most recently, they've implemented the Consolidated Patient Summary,
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a tool that pulls discrete data directly into their clinical
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workflow so they can easily filter and act on it.
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We're going to discuss what that shift means for both the providers and the
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patients they care for.
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So to start, Andrea, could you tell me a little bit about your practice at
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Emanate Health and the community that you serve?
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So we are a comprehensive family
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practice clinic. So we see patients from
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birth to
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the time they pass,
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and we manage all conditions
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from
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urgent things like fractures, getting them appropriate treatment, chronic
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medical conditions, diabetes, annual wellness
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exams,
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and everything in between.
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Excellent. So I understand that over
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95% of the data that you're getting across the
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network today does come from external sources, and when I
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say that, I mean organizations that might not be on Meditech.
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So it's definitely a significant amount of data to manage.
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Before you started using the Consolidated Patient Summary, how were you
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typically gathering that information that you needed to provide care?
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So we would rely on patients to bring us information in
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a paper form.
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We do have access to LANes, which is
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strictly within Los Angeles County.
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Or we would rely on
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having our patients sign records releases and hope that the
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outside resources would send us the information.
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Things like imaging or labs, we do have access to
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viewing
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larger companies like LabCorp or Quest.
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We can get that information fairly easily, and if they're at a local
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imaging site, we can get some of that.
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But if they weren't in our immediate area, it was
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definitely more complicated.
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Okay, so it sounds like a lot of either the patient bringing that
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data along with them to their visit.
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Or as far as if you were getting it from another organization, was
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that electronic? Was that primarily through fax
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or-
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Primarily through fax because
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electronic hasn't necessarily been considered to be super
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secure.
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Okay.
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And not compatible, to be honest. So
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mostly paper, fax.
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Okay.
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So can you tell me a little bit about the
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transition? What was the implementation
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process like for you and your team when you started to use
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Traverse Exchange?
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Honestly, it was, "Here's Traverse Exchange,
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and
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see what you can figure out."
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I think I was one of the first people to use it.
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I think I'm a guinea pig in the organization with using it.
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So it's been trial and error.
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But
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it's
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fairly
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self-explanatory when you first pull up the patient
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information. It's nice and divided into separate
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categories, so you can see
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who the patient is seeing and what kind of information is available.
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And then it's been a matter of delving into each of those categories to really
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pinpoint down what I need.
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Excellent. Okay, so I want to go back to something that you
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said. The first part there was about,
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"Here it is, try and use it and try and see
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what you find." And I think that that is something that I'm
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hearing a lot, too, as more organizations start using this
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tool because, as you mentioned before,
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it's sort of an uncertainty of what kind of data you'll
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get from other organizations. And it has been, right, for over
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a decade, trying to get data electronically.
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It just hasn't been clear on who's exchanging and how are you going to
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get that data. So are you finding that with
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Traverse, you're getting data that you didn't expect or
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from organizations that you need to get it from for your
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patients?
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Yeah, for sure. So I was pleasantly surprised to see that
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Kaiser
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shares their data. Kaiser has been a pretty closed system,
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and it has been difficult to get information from them.
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I think the other nice thing is that our larger
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organizations like Cedars, UCI Health-
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Mm-hmm
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... they are using it also. And so when our patients are seen at
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these tertiary care facilities, we're really
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able to get
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a lot more information. And then we can weed through it too.
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I don't have to give a stack. I can just pick out what I want.
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Yeah, that's great to hear. So kind of along those lines, now that you're
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using the consolidated patient summary and that data's coming in and you're able
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to kind of look at things a little bit more focused,
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how has that changed your day-to-day clinical decision-making?
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And are there any examples that you're able to share with us along those lines?
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Yeah. So I think one of the better parts of it is if I'm seeing a
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patient who recently had a hospitalization, I can
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see quickly what that discharge summary looked like.
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What do I need to really focus in on follow-up on now?
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What
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don't I have to do again? So, okay, you just had the
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CT. I see the CT, now I know where to go from
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here. So I think it is helping to
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streamline that process.
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The other thing that I think is really nice is that if I have a patient coming in
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from an outside organization and they don't know when they had
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their prior screenings,
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I can go through and make sure that I'm not duplicating and that I'm actually doing
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things in accordance with what the current guidelines are.
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So, "Oh, you had a pap smear last year. It was totally normal.
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We don't have to do that this year." "Oh, I have your mammogram.
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Great.
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Looks like we maybe should get those pictures.
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Here's who we can call to get the pictures." So I think it's just much more
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streamlined.
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That's really excellent to hear.
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I remember back in February, we were kind of sitting down
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and having a conversation. One thing that you
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mentioned, and I'm paraphrasing here, but it really stuck
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with me, is not
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wanting to be a data manager and just wanting to deliver patient care.
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And I think about that pretty much every day.
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So would you say that this has helped you in any
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way to get to that point or at least headed in the right direction from
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maybe before?
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Yeah, absolutely, because I can much quicker
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and much more easily
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figure out the pieces that I need and get those pieces
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into my chart note and not have to
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search through pieces
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of information that aren't going to help me.
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So yeah, I can focus on caring for my patient more
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than having to spend time going through all the data.
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What would you say, is there any specific data element in
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the consolidated patient summary that has been the most impactful to you in your
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role?
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I think being able to see discharge summaries has been
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immensely useful.
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I also think that being able to print the
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most current labs has been very useful and the
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radiographs or printing the image reports.
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The other thing that can be quite handy too is with our children, the
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immunization records, because
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not everybody shares to care, and so
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that can be hard to track down, too, and when that data's in there,
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it's very nice.
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Excellent.
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Now,
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I think also going back to our conversation
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previously, you mentioned patients feeling
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valued because you have this data.
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Can you speak a little bit to that and that experience?
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So I think when we're talking about someone who's new coming to the
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practice or someone who's had a recent hospitalization, they're
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coming in already apprehensive about either number one, they don't
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know us, they don't know how they're going to take care of us, or number two, they
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just had this traumatic health issue, and they want to
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make sure that they're getting the continuity.
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And so I think when we can say, "Hey, don't worry about it.
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I have the information that you need. I see exactly what happened.
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I know what I need to do," I think that's really reassuring to them, and I
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think it gives them a sense of
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confidence in the care that we're going to provide and that we are
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interested in their health and in
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taking care of them.
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So would you say that this tool has changed maybe some of those
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conversations and the way that those conversations are happening with patients
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about their care?
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Oh, definitely. Because I can
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say, "Okay, I see what you're talking about. I understand.
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Let me explain to you what I'm seeing.
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Let me
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explain to you what we're going to do going forward," instead of me having to say,
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"Well,
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I don't really know what happened. I'm going to have to get that information.
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I'll get back to you in a few weeks. Hopefully, we'll figure out
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what we need to do." I can be efficient, and I can be effective
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in
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managing what they came in for today.
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Yeah. Just thinking as
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a patient myself, as we all are, just thinking back to
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how reassuring that must feel,
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and knowing that those next steps, whatever they might be, you can
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start to plan those sooner instead of having to wait for the data to kind of follow
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that patient.
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So yeah, it's certainly excellent to hear.
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Looking ahead, how would you define success
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for a tool like this? And what does that mean
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really for the patients you care for? What would success look like?
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So I think success would be getting more organizations on board,
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so when I started talking
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about EMRs 24
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years ago,
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the big push, the reason that they were encouraging us to do this is because
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as healthcare providers, we would be able to communicate with each other, and that
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would be such an
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ease on our patients that their data would move with
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them. That was kind of the premise.
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And that didn't happen.
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But now with a product like this, it is starting to happen, and
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the patients don't necessarily know that their data is moving with them, but we
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do. So bringing more clinics on board
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would be definitely something I'd see for the future.
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Is there anything that,
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as we close out here, that you want to share as far as patient
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experiences or your experience as a clinician?
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The floor is yours. What would you want to add?
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So I
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think once people use it,
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you can't go back. When it doesn't work, when I can't access it,
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it's almost a little bit heartbreaking because I've
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grown used to being able to have that
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information so readily accessible.
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I had a patient in
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maybe about six weeks ago who had been hospitalized for a complex reason,
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and in the middle of her hospitalization, actually ended up changing medical
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groups, and so ended up changing primary care
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providers. And so she had a very complicated history,
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and
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I was able to find her, and I was able to
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see the names of the other doctors that she had seen that she wanted to continue
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care with. I could see her recent hospital records.
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We were able to get the referrals right away, get her
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continuing some of the really urgent things that needed to be
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followed up on, and I think that's what we're trying to do,
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is just keep that continuity going, and that was
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just a really great experience.
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Wow. Yeah, I think that's a really impactful story.
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It sounds like without that, there could've been an interruption to care
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that would've impacted that patient.
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Oh, tremendously.
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Yeah.
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Well, I want to thank you again for speaking to me today and
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for your time and for sharing these stories.
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It's really exciting to hear about
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how positively impactful this has been, and I think we
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understand that just in interoperability in general, there's
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still so much work to be done, but that we're headed in the right direction
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and that there's real change happening at the end of some of these tools.
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So
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thank you again for your time today, Andrea.
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I really appreciate it.
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Yeah. Thank you. Let more people know about it so they can use it.
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That's all for today, but please stay informed by subscribing to Meditech
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Podcasts, and we'll talk to you next time.