Family Practice in Nebraska Wins HIMSS Davies Award

Fremont Family Care in Fremont, Neb., has been awarded a HIMSS 2014 Ambulatory Davies Award for excellence in using electronic health records and other health information technologies.


Fremont Family Care in Fremont, Neb., has been awarded a HIMSS 2014 Ambulatory Davies Award for excellence in using electronic health records and other health information technologies.

The practice was paper-based until 2010, when a practice management/electronic health records system from eClinicalWorks was implemented, with the EHR going live in October. Before automation, the practice had no way to track preventive care, no shows or conduct patient recalls, and keeping an accurate medication list was a major challenge, according to its application to HIMSS.

With an EHR, the practice began to track patients due for preventive care such as mammograms, colonoscopy and an annual physical. The rate of patients’ age 50-75 that had a colonoscopy rose from 37 percent in the first quarter of 2011 to 70 percent in the second quarter of 2014. In that same period, the mammogram screening rate for women age 50-74 doubled to 56 percent.

The practice also began to track patients with diabetes, hypertension and hyperlipidemia who were due for tests. The percentage of adult diabetics with hemoglobin A1C <7.0 percent rose from 36 percent to 45 percent in a year.

The rate of senior citizens receiving pneumonia vaccinations improved from 56 percent vaccinated to 75 percent using a standing order placed in the EHR, and cut related hospital admissions for pneumonia from eight percent to three percent in a year.

HIMSS also has recently honored University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics, Lakeland HealthCare in St. Joseph, Mich.; Truman Medical Centers in Kansas City, Mo.; and Marina Salud in Spain with Enterprise Davies Awards; and bestowed a Community Health Organization Davies Award to Community Health Centers Inc. of central Florida. HIMSS also has a Public Health Davies Award, which has not yet been announced.

At least one additional ambulatory site will be reviewed as a possible Davies winner in early 2015. More information and case studies are here.

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