The retail healthcare industry has exploded in recent years and CVS' retail medical clinic, called MinuteClinic, is approaching this new model with a focus on interoperability and data integration.
James D. Murray, vice president of information technology for CVS MinuteClinic attended Becker's Hospital Review's CIO/HIT + Revenue Cycle Summit in Chicago to talk a little about what the organization is doing in the retail sector.
"One of MinuteClinic's goal is getting people access to acute care, chronic condition monitoring, preventive care and wellness programs, and supporting access to these services in the medical neighborhood," said Mr. Murray.
Some ways MinuteClinic is doing this is by working on integrating EMRs and having retail clinic nurse practitioners and physician assistants collaborate with local physicians and hospitals. By working together, the care a patient receives at a clinic can be documented and integrated directly into the EMR and workflow of the patient's primary care physician.
The process MinuteClinic uses in comprised of the following eight steps.
1. Kiosk registration. When the patient registers, they are asked questions about their medical and medication history.
2. Provider accesses EMR. Patients can give MinuteClinic consent to view their patient record.
3. Patient receives treatment. MinuteClinic treats the patient and gives the clinic consent to send a visit summary to their primary care physician.
4. End of visit documentation. The MinuteClinic NP, PA or clinician documents the patient visit.
5. Integration network. The documentation is entered into an integrated network.
6. Connectivity options. Providers can choose how MinuteClinic shares information, whether its via direct SMTP message, web services, or Epic
7. Affiliate receives message. The primary care physician receives a notification about the patient's MinuteClinic visit.
8. Epic. The data is recorded and integrated in to the Epic platform.