All right. Good afternoon. This is Ashok Mathur. Thank you Monique for introducing me, and thank you all for joining. I know it's just after the Labor Day weekend, so I think people are catching up. We appreciate your time.
This is what I'm going to be covering. We want to share the Patagonia Health story, how we first started, and what our strategies are as a company. I will share what I focus on as the CEO and co-founder and talk about some of the things we have learned about key elements of successful EHR adoption. We are focused a lot on public health. We have learned a lot and continue to learn, but we want to share some of the adoption successes.
We will talk about service excellence, how we achieve that, and some of the outcomes. We are in healthcare, so we should really focus on outcomes. Then I will hand it over to Monique for wrap-up.
Background of Patagonia Health
We started in 2009, and I will share what led us to starting the company and some of the background behind it.
Prior to starting this company, I worked for a very large electronic health software company called Allscripts. I was getting a little bit uneasy with my life. I wanted to discover what I would do when I grew up. So I took three months off and took off on a journey, which I will share.
The journey is somewhat similar to what you may experience if you decide to get a new EHR, whether it's with Patagonia Health or another company.
When I started my South America trip backpacking, the goal was to visit these beautiful mountains on the left, the alpine granite towers sticking out of the ground. They are an absolutely beautiful sight. When I left my office, I was full of joy. That's me on the right by Iguazu Falls. When you do not have a nine-to-five schedule, you can imagine everything possible, so you start full of excitement.
But as you travel on the journey, you run into unexpected problems. On the left-hand side, I was on a five-day hike with my backpack. Two days in, my boots, which were Austrian boots that were 30 years old, gave up. I could not go back, and I could not go forward. Luckily I managed to survive because one of the cooks at the shelter I was staying in offered me his old Nike shoes. They were not perfect for hiking, but that was all I had, so I made do and managed to finish my hike without getting stuck in the mountains.
There is obviously a lot of fun when you go on a journey, whether it is in South America or a journey into getting an electronic health record. You will have unexpected problems, but you can solve them, and there is fun along the way.
Looking back on my three-month trip, I traveled with a lot of people. We had a great team. As people select Patagonia Health, we team with you for our joint success through the bumps and the joys. At the end, we are left with happy memories. That is my journey in Patagonia, and that is my wife with me. I think the journey of EHR adoption is similar if you decide to take that next step. We know there will be bumps, we know we will partner, and we know we will have a great time doing it.
When I came back, it was very clear to me that I needed to start a cloud-based software company because the prior company I worked for had 20 to 30-year-old software that was very clunky. So we started Patagonia Health with a focus on two things: the product and the service.
Product and Service Goals
For the product, our goal was to provide easy-to-use software using cloud and apps technology. Then a senior VP at my previous company said, “Ashok, don't just work on making the product easy to use. Focus on making it an easy company to work with.” Some large companies are not easy to work with and are not responsive.
So we set our goal to provide easy-to-use software that is comprehensive. We focus only on public health. We have features based on feedback from multiple health departments, and as we know, health departments are very unique. They are not typical EHR users.
Company-wide, our goal is to have 100 percent customer referenceability. That is not easy, because we try to keep thousands of nurses in public health departments happy, and frankly, we make their life difficult by giving them a computer. They are people-oriented. They want to help the community with immunizations and family planning, but they have been given a computer to work with. We try to do everything we can to make it easy to use and get the nurses happy.
Luckily our strategy of focusing on public health and service has allowed us to grow. We are based in Cary, North Carolina. We expanded in the eastern half of the United States from 2012 to 2014, and then in 2015, after learning a lot about public health and implementation, we expanded westward. Now we are coast to coast and growing.
Keys to Successful EHR Adoption
Some of the things we have learned along the way relate to successful EHR adoption. It does not matter which EHR you choose; these are the key criteria to make an implementation successful.
EHR adoption is hard. It is really hard for clinical folks. But think of it like a three-legged stool. You need all three legs working:
1. The Product
The product is the electronic health software. Frankly, that is the easy part. Once nurses tell us they want immunization inventory, they want F-PART reports, they want something specific, it is pretty easy to code that. Software can do almost anything you want.
2. The Process
Everybody in your health department must use the system consistently. If you decide that patient registration must include specific fields, and you have three people doing registration, then all three must enter data the same way. If they do not, you will have problems with your reports later.
It is similar to manufacturing a car. Everyone must do their job correctly or there will be issues down the road.
3. The People
People are the hardest part. Some like EHRs, some do not. You must have leadership involved to ensure people buy into the process, starting from EHR selection through adoption.
Organizing for Success
Health departments that succeed do the following:
- Have a leader or sponsor, such as a health officer or CFO, who champions the project.
- Assign a project manager who is responsible for maximizing value from the EHR.
- Involve many users early when selecting an EHR so they feel ownership.
- Hold regular meetings every two to four weeks with internal stakeholders.
- Maintain a tracking list of what is working well and what is not.
- Keep a top-five list of priorities to work on internally and with the vendor.
- Communicate regularly with Patagonia Health and seek assistance.
- Learn from peer health departments that use Patagonia Health.
Ongoing User Engagement
We strongly believe EHR training and learning does not stop after go-live. Getting full benefits from the EHR is a journey. The more you invest in learning, the more you get out of it. Everyone will have a different level at which they feel comfortable.
Our approach to achieving 100 percent customer referenceability centers on user engagement. Since we focus on public health, everything we provide is relevant.
The ways we engage include:
1. Support
After go-live, you can call or send tickets. We come onsite to train you, which lets us understand your workflow and people. You get to know our team personally.
2. Monthly Newsletter
Includes tips, best practices, and relevant updates. The tips are based on common support tickets and trainer observations. And yes, the cartoons at the bottom are my favorite part.
3. User Focus Groups
Once we have five or more customers in a state, users meet every four to six months. These meetings are driven by the users themselves.
4. Training Webinars
Every two to three weeks we hold webinars on specific topics. They are recorded for those unable to attend.
5. Listening, Improving, Delivering
We take feedback from users, support tickets, and user groups and convert it into software updates every six weeks. You do not wait years for improvements.
6. Regulatory Compliance and State Requirements
We provide federal and state compliance updates at no additional cost.
All of this is intended to help you get more out of the EHR without additional fees.
Support Tools and Additional Resources
We offer several convenient tools:
- A support button inside the EHR that allows you to submit a message and attach a screenshot instantly.
- A knowledge base library with searchable articles.
- Personalized service from people who know you and your workflows.
We also share county health department news, user group updates, and EHR enhancements in the newsletter.
For states with five or more health departments using Patagonia Health, we hold user focus groups onsite at no additional cost.
Survey Insights and Enhancements
We conducted a user satisfaction survey and received over a thousand comments. One key question was what three things would help users get the most out of their EHR. The feedback led to new webinar series, product enhancements, and ongoing improvements. We are now launching a new survey.
Software updates continue to include:
- Features inspired by user ideas.
- Bug fixes.
- Performance optimization.
- Productivity enhancements such as scanning a driver’s license to auto-populate demographics.
We keep pricing simple with a fixed monthly cost in a five-year contract. We do not charge for upgrades.
Outcomes and Customer Service
We have award-winning customer service. For two years in a row, we received the Stevies Award for customer service. We know the journey is ongoing, and not everyone will be happy every day, but we work hard to address issues and improve continuously.
Our strong focus on service is a key reason why health departments recommend Patagonia Health to others.
Q & A Session
Monique: I want to ask you about consultative services we did not mention in the presentation, such as billing consultation and what Debbie does. Could you talk a little about that?
Ashok: Good question, Monique.
Once a department goes through selection, purchase, configuration, training, and go-live, we have observed certain patterns. At first, people struggle with billing or registration because it is different from what they did before. Debbie and Felicia continue to help answer questions because they visited you and know your workflow.
About a year after go-live, departments start asking, “What else can I do to maximize value from my EHR?” That is when workflow optimization services become helpful. We offer one-on-one consulting to help you improve processes in registration, data entry, reporting, and more.
If your state has five or more customers, you receive this through user focus groups, but departments can also purchase customized services depending on size and needs.
Monique: It is fun to see customers realize an increase in revenue because of those services.
There are no questions at this point. If you are in the process of selecting an EHR, we hope you got useful ideas, tips, and best practices from Ashok’s presentation. If you have further questions, feel free to contact us at info at Patagonia Health or use the information on Ashok’s slide. If you are already in communication with one of our sales team members, continue that dialogue directly.
Again, thank you very much for joining. Ashok, thanks for presenting today. We hope to see you at future presentations.
Ashok: Thank you.
