New River Health creates new pathways to access care

New River Health Oak Hill: Putting the “community” in "community health”

Right off Route 19, the major throughway for West Virginia, a large building sat abandoned for over 15 years. In the last few years, New River Health Association, a FQHC in West Virginia, bought this building, renovated it, and transformed it into a medical facility and convention center to benefit the community.

Now, this center is home to an incredibly broad range of services. Under one roof, you’ll find family medicine, pediatrics, women’s health, psychiatry, dentistry, urgent care, pulmonary rehab, dermatology, physical therapy, a pharmacy, and more. Without leaving the building, you can get labs done and pick up your medication, and you can swing by the coffee shop if you have any down time. Not to mention, there’s a bus stop right outside, making it uniquely accessible in an area without a robust infrastructure of public transportation.

Given that over half of these specialty services did not exist anywhere in the area before they built this center, it’s a unique solution to a challenge so many rural areas face: access to healthcare.

New River Health engages patients in rural West Virginia by focusing on growth

New River Health’s mission is to promote the health, well-being, and human and economic development of individuals in their community. Angela Barker, PA-C, Medical Director at New River Health, shares that their health center is uniquely “involved in the community and the whole patient,” addressing patient needs beyond their immediate reason for visit.

In the near decade that New River Health has partnered with athenahealth, their unique patient count and visits per year have both grown roughly 60%.

Meeting patients where they're at

In Appalachia, many individuals either strongly prefer not to leave the area they reside in or are unable to do so. In addition, broadband gaps and limited digital literacy can create massive challenges for widespread adoption of digital health tools.

As Barker shares, this is why it’s so important to strategize creative ways to meet patients where they’re at. New River Health’s reach is broad, with four main sites (including their new center), eight school-based centers, multiple dental clinics, and pharmacies spread across the region.

Digital tools such as the athenaOne® Patient Portal help provide a bridge for new patients, digitally savvy locals, and travelers to quickly seek care. New River Health also ensures they’re equipped to address local population health trends, such as black lung from coal mining and addiction treatment services.

“[With athenaOne] I’ve had providers come to me and say, ‘Thank you, my life is so much better. I save time every day.’”

Rising to meet complex challenges with unique, strategic solutions

Beyond primary and urgent care needs, New River Health strives to create innovative pathways for patients to access specialty services. Their newest facility is a shining example of the impact this approach can have on a community.

With so many services, patients, staff, and activity happening in one place, operational excellence is important to avoid chaos. Barker says athenaOne allows her teams to ensure the patients flow through their visits without any mishaps. “Everybody knows where everybody is in the building because of athena. You mark them arrived, you mark them in the room, you mark them out, you know where they are. So, the throughput is much quicker.”

Administrative staff aren’t the only ones who benefit from a streamlined system – providers also stay efficient with clinical documentation in athenaOne.

Growth and provider satisfaction: Two sides of the same coin

One of the most important factors in keeping a healthcare business running smoothly and delivering high-quality patient care, according to Barker, is provider satisfaction. As she puts it, “If the providers aren’t happy, nobody’s happy. When providers thrive, the whole system benefits."

This conviction was a driving factor in choosing athenaOne back in 2017, as clinical documentation in athenaOne is tailored to reduce administrative burden on providers. Tools such as clinical accelerators and specialty-specific encounter layouts make it simpler for providers to document quickly and accurately.

Barker shares that many providers complete their documentation before leaving the exam room, as she prefers to do. “I’ve had providers come to me and say, ‘Thank you, my life is so much better. I save time every day,’” Barker says.

Physician burnout is a pressing issue, and documentation burden is one of the contributing factors. At New River Health, they close encounters on the same day on average 80% of the time and have after-hours documentation time of only 9.7 minutes. They amend encounters 1.7% of the time, which means their documentation is comprehensive and accurate on first pass.*

New River Health’s focus on provider happiness supports both their retention and satisfaction, so clinicians can focus on delivering high-quality care, and the business can focus on growth.

Seamless Integration for Coordinated, Value-Oriented Care

As a part of keeping all of their sites as well as external systems connected, EHR integration is critical for New River Health.

“The patients may end up at one site and then they go to another site and their chart is already available in athenaOne, so we’re not trying to track consult reports and medication lists down,” Barker explains.

Interfaces with local hospital systems create expediency in sharing care information when patients need to go to hospitals in nearby towns for further care. When this happens, Barker says, “The hospital records often arrive before the patients do.”

This data also feeds reporting for the value-based care programs that New River Health participates in. The teams can easily run care gap reports and conduct proactive outreach in athenaOne, and the providers see all the relevant information in a patient’s chart during the visit.

Beyond provider experience and business impact, Barker also shares how this supports the mission: “Ultimately, if we keep our patients out of the hospital, that means they’re healthier. And if we address their quality measures, that means they’re healthier. Prevention is key.”

Partnership that Listens and Supports Growth

For Barker, New River Health’s relationship with athenahealth extends beyond technology. From their onboarding experience, which Barker says was the “smoothest go-live we’ve ever had,” to their ongoing dialogue of support, New River Health has a true partner in athenahealth.

“Our business model is pretty simple: If you’re not growing, you’re dying,” Barker says. “So, we’re always growing, always expanding.”

For independent practices and health centers seeking to grow confidently, get in touch to learn more about how athenaOne can support your organization’s goals.