Case Study: MedStar Health achieves clinician time savings and increased patient capacity with Cerner's MedConnect EHR

MedStar Health implements new EHR, sees time savings improvements

MedStar Health, a large regional health system serving Maryland and Washington, D.C., undertook a system-wide switch to Cerner’s EHR, MedConnect, across 43 specialties, 6,200 users and 465 ambulatory practices. The goal was to unify records, improve documentation and reduce time spent in the EHR; a pilot began in August 2016 followed by three major implementation waves, completing the bulk of the rollout within about a year.

MedStar paired the new platform with adoption coaching, Dynamic Documentation and an optimization project (Feb–Jun 2017). Early results showed strong adoption—ambulatory providers logged more than 800,000 orders and 36,900 notes in January 2017—and measurable efficiency gains: MPages chart review time fell from 6:36 to 5:44 after coaching, average monthly patients seen per provider rose from 149 to 163, and optimization delivered an 11% reduction in time in chart and a 19% drop in orders time per patient.

MedStar Health

Brendan Furlong

Vice President and Chief Medical Information Officer