Patrick Daley, MD joined Fort Wayne Cardiology in 1986. He is ABIM board certified in cardiovascular disease, nuclear cardiology and interventional cardiology. He is also the founder and director of the FWC Nuclear Cardiology Laboratory, a clinical assistant at Indiana University and a fellow of the America College of Cardiology (ACC) with a degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine.During his tenure at Fort Wayne Cardiology, Dr. Daley has co-authored multiple scientific papers and was named Chairman of the Fort Wayne Cardiology quality committee.
Fort Wayne Cardiology was established in 1978 and is recognized as the region's premiere center for cardiovascular care. The practice has 22 physicians and more than 175 nurses, medical assistants, technicians and administrative professionals. Fort Wayne Cardiology has two Fort Wayne office locations, and routinely treats patients at 11 clinics in surrounding communities and at the two local health systems, Lutheran and Parkview. The implementation of HIT in the office setting began with document management functions in 1998 and evolved incrementally to electronic prescribing, point of care decision support and now participation in direct electronic reporting as well as health information exchange. Recently, Fort Wayne Cardiology completed a full integration with Parkview Health System.
WebChart EHR with PINNACLE Registry™ Functionality
We implemented WebChart EHR with PINNACLE Registry functionality because it helps us measure the quality of care we are providing to our patients and allows us to report everything electronically back to the American College of Cardiology’s NCDR® (National Cardiovascular Disease Registry).
For the record, Fort Wayne Cardiology is the first practice in the U.S. to capture data in our EHR and electronically report back directly to the PINNACLE Registry. We have found that point of care electronic reporting of cardiovascular process measures has rapidly reduced variation in adherence to accepted practice guidelines.
With an increased focus on quality reporting, we are dedicated to making this an efficient and effective part of our practice. The PINNACLE Registry module integrated in our WebChart EHR allows us to document the proven ACC/AHA performance measures for each patient and helps us modify our interactions with them. For example, if we have not met the quality of care guidelines for a particular patient, the technology will remind us of this and will prompt us to ask the patient why they are not taking a particular medicine, or why they have not made a specific lifestyle change. The PINNACLE Registry module in our EHR gives us immediate and actionable feedback as we document the encounter, helping us treat patients more effectively. All of the data we enter is automatically transferred to the NCDR and entered in the PINNACLE Registry, and the NCDR then provides us with quarterly reports that show how we compare to cardiology practices around the country.
Q: Why did you decide to pull the trigger on implementing the PINNACLE Registry in your offices?
A: Fort Wayne Cardiology has a fully functioning EHR from Medical Informatics Engineering (MIE). Our office relies on this web-based system for remote access to our data from multiple locations. When reporting quality of care measures back to the NCDR, we had a large amount of data to fill out on the organization’s hard copy PINNACLE Registry forms. It's like we were going backwards. It was costing us time and money to dedicate resources to this paperwork. We are now able to complete this work electronically in a seamless fashion.
Q: What were your primary goals in joining the PINNACLE Registry?
A: We wanted to capture quality of care information precisely, accurately and efficiently with the fewest number of clicks. In addition, we want to make our fellow cardiologists aware of the PINNACLE Registry, why they should implement, how to do it and how to overcome some of the challenges involved.
Q: What were some of the challenges you faced with PINNACLE Registry?
A: Time is always a challenge. The new technology added an extra layer, an extra step, in quality care reporting. We were all accustomed to one way of doing things and now there was this extra hurdle.
Q: How did you overcome those challenges?
A: We worked with our current EHR vendor, Medical Informatics Engineering (MIE), to fine-tune the technology to the way we practice medicine at Fort Wayne Cardiology. They were very attentive to our wants/needs and helped us create a system that worked for our office and for the American College of Cardiology. As we document an encounter in our WebChart EHR, the data we enter also completes the appropriate fields in the integrated PINNACLE Registry module. This eliminates duplicate data entry and results in fewer clicks we eliminated the paper forms and maximized our productivity.
Q: How has the PINNACLE Registry worked so far in your office?
A: At this point, most of our patients are up and running with the PINNACLE Registry, it is completely interoperable with our current EHR from MIE and we are the first cardiology practice in the U.S. reporting quality measures electronically to the NCDR. This is the first generation of the technology. Over time, we will continue to make subtle changes to make it even better.
MIE built one of the first successful health information exchanges in the United States, and developed a full portfolio of web-based electronic health record products employed by physician practices as well as Fortune 500 organizations operating on-site employee health clinics. This minimally invasive™ EHR offering is accessible, interoperable, flexible and affordable, and has been configured to meet the clinical documentation needs of cardiology practices. MIE and the American College of Cardiology have formed a strategic relationship to promote MIE electronic health record products with integrated PINNACLE Registry functionality. Our combined offering is designed to help cardiology practices incorporate quality guidelines into clinical workflows, improving care and helping ACC members meet the meaningful use guidelines required to qualify for ARRA incentives.
The American College of Cardiology is leading the way to optimal cardiovascular care and disease prevention. The College is a 37,000-member nonprofit medical society and bestows the credential Fellow of the American College of Cardiology upon physicians who meet its stringent qualifications. The ACC provides professional education and operates the NCDR® (National Cardiovascular Disease Registry) for the measurement and improvement of quality care. The NCDR’s PINNACLE Registry™ is the first national ambulatory quality improvement registry that gives practices the credible quality measurement solutions they need to survive and thrive in today's health care environment. Visit www.ncdr.com to learn more.
