Best Practice Alerts and Healthcare Costs
The Capstone team worked with the Institute for Urban Family Health (the Institute) to analyze the impact that best practice alerts (BPAs), a function of an Electronic Medical Record (EMR), had on healthcare costs. In order to do this, the Capstone team designed a retrospective study that consisted of a review of pre and post-BPA implementation data between the years 2002-2005. The data was acquired from Continuum Health Care and contained utilization and financial claim data associated with the Institutes diabetic patient population. Once the data analysis portion of the study is completed, it will be determined whether or not there is a cost savings associated with BPA usage. These results can then be used to aid the Institute in developing future quality improvement initiatives and to guide the allocation of scarce resources. Furthermore, the results have the potential to persuade other community health care centers to adopt EMRs.
This Capstone was made possible with the support from an anonymous donor through FJC: A Donor-Advised Fund.