Located outside of Rocky Mountain National Park, Estes Park Medical Center (EPMC) provides top-quality care to the members of its community and the thousands of tourists who visit the area every year. It offers a wide range of services that include: a 25-bed critical access hospital, emergency room, outpatient clinic, birthing center, home health/hospice agency, and long-term care. EPMC uses a variety of EHRs to meet the needs of these different areas, including: MEDITECH in the hospital, MEDHOST in the ER, and Allscripts Pro EHR in its clinic.
To ensure that clinical reports and other information are delivered seamlessly from MEDITECH to these disparate systems and external recipients, EPMC relies on Forward Advantage’s Communication Director report distribution solution. “Our Medical Records, Radiology, and Laboratory departments use Communication Director,” says Gary Hall, CIO. “It’s a solid solution that eliminates a lot of paper by allowing us to send reports electronically. Reports are automatically sent as soon as they are signed, and we can easily block any physicians who don’t want to receive them.”
As EPMC’s needs have changed, so has their use of Communication Director
Back in 2003, the Medical Center started with Communication Director’s DemandFax module which integrated with the demandfax functionality in MEDITECH MAGIC. When EPMC upgraded to MEDITECH 6.0, it upgraded Communication Director to include SmartRoute technology that automates report distribution using rules to intelligently determine a report’s recipient and their delivery preference. More recently, EPMC upgraded to the new browser-based version 4 to take advantage of a more sophisticated System Activity Monitor and other new functionality. “We have a small number of staff, so we all wear many hats,” says Hall. “It’s always appreciated when things work well out of the box. This is a solid solution, and I’m extremely pleased with the upgrade.”
Browser-based with an improved System Activity Monitor
The Communication Director 4 platform (CDS 4) is browser-based, which has greatly simplified installation/upgrades at EPMC and provides end users with more mobility. This, along with improvements made to the System Activity Monitor, were the key reasons why EPMC opted to upgrade. “The ability to monitor faxing is always a challenge, and the System Activity Monitor has been extremely useful,” says Hall.
“The latest version is much better visually and fits our workflows better. It’s easier to filter and search, so we can quickly identify any detail we need from a report.” - Gary Hall, CIO
The best thing is the support
Forward Advantage and EPMC have a nearly 15-year relationship built upon mutual trust, quality solutions, and unparalleled support. In fact, Hall described working with Forward Advantage as “an absolute dream.” He works with many different vendors and says that they all have a different culture of support. “The best thing about Forward Advantage is the support,” Hall concludes. “Communication Director is so solid that we don’t have to call very often but when we do, we always receive quick, on-target answers and more education and information than we usually ask for. This helps us understand what’s happening behind the scenes.”
“Every day, Gary and his team work with the complexities of multiple EHRs and a diverse patient population,” says Mike Knebel, vice president of sales at Forward Advantage. The challenges of delivery systems like EPMC’s demonstrate the value of the Communication Director platform, and we are pleased to be a part of their continued success.”
Interested in learning more about Communication Director 4 (CDS 4) and what it can do for your organization?
