A medical group with primary care and specialty practices faced significant workflow challenges as staff spent an average of 12 minutes per patient navigating four separate systems to gather essential information. This fragmented approach frustrated providers, created bottlenecks during check-ins, and diminished the patient experience, not to mention potential negative effects on their value-based care contracts. The medical staff were performing up to 22 clicks and 4 separate logins for each patient encounter, consuming approximately 20% of each appointment slot simply gathering information that already existed within their systems. 

Upon reviewing the process, our team discovered that despite having sophisticated healthcare systems with available API capabilities, the medical group had inadvertently created information silos. Rather than replacing existing systems, we identified an opportunity to leverage EMR software APIs to enhance the patient banner with critical data elements. Our solution integrated risk contract indications, last appointment dates, payment status, RAF scores, and pending preventive care follow-ups directly into the patient banner, presenting all relevant information front and center when staff accessed patient records. 

The results were transformative: check-in times decreased by 71% (from 12 minutes to just 3.5 minutes per patient), providers saw an average of two additional patients daily, and it allowed staff to flip nearly a dozen appointments to AWVs (Annual Wellness Visits) weekly. A physician at the medical group noted, “By having critical information immediately visible when we open a patient record, we can make informed decisions faster and provide more personalized care. The staff no longer waste precious minutes searching for information across multiple systems.” This project demonstrated that breaking down data silos doesn’t always require expensive system replacements—sometimes, the most effective solution is connecting existing technologies in smarter ways.