Case Study: Northeast Alabama Regional Medical Center improves provider satisfaction and reduces wait times with Altera Digital Health

Bridging the clinical-IT gap with outsourced expertise

Northeast Alabama Regional Medical Center, a community-based health system, faced a critical gap between its clinical staff and IT department, which hindered the effectiveness of its EHR system and frustrated physicians. To address this, the center engaged Altera Digital Health (then part of Allscripts) for a strategic review and to utilize services like the Paragon Clinician Hub and EDIS to bridge this divide and optimize their technology.

The solution involved Altera Digital Health providing an interim Chief Medical Informatics Officer who worked closely with all departments to understand their workflows and frustrations. This led to specific improvements such as making co-morbidity documentation mandatory for anesthesiology, which increased reimbursements, and creating customized emergency department templates. These changes resulted in a 25% reduction in the average patient length of stay and a 16% decrease in admission wait times from the emergency room.

Northeast Alabama Regional Medical Center

Pete Furlow

Chief Information Officer