Office Practicum Case Study

Bright Oaks Pediatrics Switches from athenahealth to OP to Provide Quality Pediatric-Specific Care

Located in Bel Air, Maryland, Bright Oaks Pediatrics serves a rural and suburban population of approximately 7,000 patients. With three physicians, four certified pediatric nurse practitioners and more than 10 staff members, the practice is dedicated to providing quality pediatric care to their patients.

Entering the World of EHRs

When Bright Oaks made the transition from paper charts to an electronic health record (EHR), the practice selected athenahealth as their vendor of choice. At the time, the practice felt any EHR would greatly benefit their providers, staff and patients, and was eager about the opportunity. However, given that EHRs were still a relatively new commodity, Bright Oaks soon discovered they were one of only two pediatric offices using athenahealth’s platform.

“The main challenge with athenahealth was not having any tools, solutions, or templates that were pediatric-specific,” said Jessica Zeller, a certified pediatric nurse practitioner at Bright Oaks Pediatrics. “Another doctor and I spent countless hours creating our templates by hand. After which, those templates were shared to other pediatric offices through the EHR system.”

A Need for Peds

After seven years with athenahealth, Bright Oaks reached their final straw.

“athenahealth completely revamped their whole profile in 2015. They called it a streamlined process, but it was not easy to understand and it felt like we were starting from square one again,” said Zeller. “Over the years, we realized how we could benefit from a pediatric-specific system and decided that the timing was optimal to find one and implement it.”

Bright Oaks then conducted market research on pediatric EHRs, ultimately deciding on OP as the most ideal solution for the practice.

“OP was the provider that fit our needs the best,” said Zeller. “With athenahealth, we had to keep arguing with them to include important pediatric metrics like BMI and BP percentiles, whereas that and other important features are standard in OP’s solution.”

No Looking Back

Six months after implementation, Bright Oaks providers and staff were certain that they made the right choice for themselves and their patients.

“The resources found directly within OP’s system, as well as the pediatric community that comes with it, have been tremendously helpful,” said Zeller. “Yes, we can click one button and get access to a clinical article, but we also have the opportunity to connect with other pediatricians, bounce ideas off each other, and give each other advice. Something we definitely weren’t able to do before with an adult-based EHR.”

OP has also helped improve workflow efficiency at Bright Oaks while ensuring quality for its patients.

“I am a thorough documenter, and OP’s ease of use and pediatric templates have helped me decrease my documentation time by 50 percent,” said Zeller. “With OP, I also experience appropriate evidence-based guidance in documentation. This means every time I select a template, I am not only 100 percent confident that my documentation is going to be accurate, but that it will depict exactly what I would say to my patients as well.”

Overall, Bright Oaks is looking forward to their future with OP and expects to reap other benefits like cost savings and increased revenue, in the near future.