Case Study: St. Cloud Eye Clinic achieves 50% reduction in A/R days and an MU-ready integrated EHR with NextGen Healthcare

PM Replacement Decision Adds Integrated EHR for Meaningful Use

St. Cloud Eye Clinic, an integrated ophthalmology practice in St. Cloud, MN (clinic, optical shop, surgical center and LASIK suite) seeing about 5,500 patients a month, had used the same practice management system for 15 years but had no electronic health record. Heavy paper-based clinical workflows left the practice unable to attest for Meaningful Use and created inefficiencies, so leadership prioritized replacing the PM system with an integrated EHR/PM and selecting a vendor with strong support and broad staff buy-in.

They implemented NextGen Practice Management followed by NextGen Ambulatory EHR with comprehensive, role-based training and ophthalmology-specific templates that eased adoption. The phased rollout and vendor support enabled physicians to tailor templates quickly; results included a 50% reduction in A/R days (40 to 20), clean claims rates in the 99th percentile, more than a 50% cut in monthly transcription costs, and readiness to pursue Meaningful Use incentives.

St. Cloud Eye Clinic

Dee Starkey

Practice Administrator