The 1,000 diabetics cared for by Village Health Partners, Plano, Texas, also are cared for by the practice’s electronic health record system. If their tests and examinations aren’t up to date, the EHR busts them, no matter whether it is their doctor or the front desk person looking at the screen. Even if they’re coming in with carpal tunnel syndrome or a bad cold, they’ll get their eye exams, foot exams or blood tests as well.

The EHR takes equally good care of the rest of the practice’s 25,000 patients, physician leaders at the group practice say. If any are due for a mammogram, colonoscopy, or other routine screening, the system will remind their health care providers. And because the practice is the anchor tenant (and founder) of Legacy Medical Village, a “medical mall” with specialists, a lab and an imaging center in the same building, the patients often can get their services then and there.

The 10-physician practice has had a Centricity EHR from Waukesha, Wis.-based GE Healthcare since 2007. The practice uses the EHR for protocols, reminders and its ability to compare the practice’s patients against millions of patients cared for by other Centricity users. The practice has boosted compliance with diabetes protocols into the 60% range.

Using the EHR also has trimmed the practice’s malpractice insurance premiums by 2.5%. Village Health Partners has earned recognition for superior diabetes care from the National Committee for Quality Assurance, and has applied for NCQA recognition as a patient-centered medical home. The practice believes it is poised to reap the benefits from any pay-for-performance programs that may eventually show up in Texas.

“We can’t all know what each patient needs, right off the top of our heads,” says Christopher Crow, M.D., a family practice physician who doubles as a practice management consultant with Crow Healthcare Strategies, teaching other physicians how to leverage information technology to improve care. “We have protocols built into the system to remind us, even if the patient isn’t in the office and is just calling in for a prescription refill.”

By the time Village Health Partners was ready to shop for an EHR, Crow had already lived through two Centricity implementations: the first when he was a resident and the second when he and another doctor were in private practice.

Village Health Partners was formed in 2007 when that private practice merged with several others, none of which had ventured into EHRs. Crow’s experience proved invaluable. He and his partner had spent about $100,000 to implement Centricity. Crow says the cost per physician to extend the EHR to the rest of the new practice was substantially less because of all the work his previous practice had done on infrastructure and because the practice was able to handle training entirely in-house. An information technology staff of 1.5 full-time equivalents maintains the EHR system.