Case Study: Bluegrass Ear, Nose & Throat achieves 1.5–2 hours daily time savings with NextGen Healthcare's NextPen and Ambulatory EHR

A Simple Pen Saves Two Hours a Day

Bluegrass Ear, Nose & Throat Clinic in Winchester, KY faced a workflow problem after adopting NextGen Ambulatory EHR: patients still completed paper intake forms that certified medical assistants had to re-enter manually, eroding the time savings and efficiency the EHR was meant to provide.

The practice implemented NextPen integrated with NextGen, which captures handwritten form data and converts it into structured EHR entries without scanning or transcription. The change saves about 10–15 minutes per new patient (roughly 1.5–2 hours daily), lets the clinic see more patients and boost revenue, improves staff and patient satisfaction, and helps streamline reporting for Meaningful Use.

Bluegrass Ear Nose & Throat

Ara S. Makdessian

MD, FACS, FRCSC Bluegrass Ear, Nose & Throat Clinic