Hometown Health Center (HHCME) is a rural FQHC based in Newport, Maine. They offer primary medical care including pediatrics, women’s health programs, family planning, and chronic disease management, as well as dental and behavioral health care, and podiatry.
6,200 Patients
Federally Qualified
Health Center
Primary Care
HHCME’s CMO Dr. Michael MacDonald and CEO Robin Winslow saw that their providers had to spend over three hours per day documenting patient visits outside of work hours, on top of their work between appointments. Squeezing the notes in during visits left less time to talk with patients. The leadership team wanted to cut down on their providers‘ documentation time to improve their quality of life, and maximize provider retention and recruitment.
The leadership team also wanted to improve quality measures by giving providers more focus during appointments. Looking further, they saw that some care provided was not fully documented. The center’s quality scores and its payer incentives were both suffering. The team had implemented Hierarchical Condition Categories (HCCME), a coding system that could capture more data on care delivered and improve reimbursement, but providers were too overloaded to engage in the additional process.
HHC implemented Scribe-X, giving the CMO and two other providers remote medical scribes that accompany them to every appointment. The scribes observe each appointment remotely, through HCC’s existing laptops. The scribes fill in the entire chart during each visit, submit orders for labs, imaging, and referrals, and apply the more robust HCC coding.
92% of time saved for providers on daily appointment documentation
.png)
Over 16 hours saved per
provider per week
.png)
Improved appointment documentation and coding
.png)
90% reduction in unresolved inbox items at the end of each day
.png)
Referrals submitted 1 to 2 days faster - immediately after appointments
.png)
Employer of choice for new providers over competing facilities
.png)
