Transforming Healthcare

By Creighton Arita
Wednesday - September 10, 2008
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By Creighton Arita
CEO and President of TeamPraxis LLC

When I founded TeamPraxis in 1992 with six employees, our vision was to support small physician practices in our community by leveraging technology with a focus on improving the quality of patient care.

TeamPraxis provides clinical software and services to more than 1,000 providers throughout the state of Hawaii and has grown to more than 140 employees.

However, this is just the beginning for us, and we are enthusiastic about the opportunities to impact healthcare communities, both locally and nationally. Last year, TeamPraxis reached a significant milestone by raising $20 million as an Act 221 Qualified High Technology Business. TeamPraxis also reached an agreement with the nation’s leading clinical software provider, AllscriptsTM (NASDAQ:MDRX) to market and resell its Clinical Quality Solution (CQS) to more than 40,000 physicians nationwide. Recently, in partnership with AllscriptsTM, CQS agreements have been reached with several large health-care organizations including HealthCare Partners and Florida Health Care Plans, more than doubling the company’s physician base.


TeamPraxis also signed an exclusive statewide enterprise license agreement with AllscriptsTM last year to make TouchWorks Electronic Health Records (EHR) software available to every physician in the state of Hawaii. With the electronic patient’s records at the provider’s fingertips, physicians can operate in a paperless environment, thereby eliminating problems and reducing errors associated with paper charts. Additionally, an EHR system allows physicians to prescribe medications electronically, supporting the newly passed legislative bill HR 6331 (the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008) that provides financial incentives for improving the safety and quality of prescribing medications.

TeamPraxis executive management team: (front, from left) Marvis Shigeta-Rosa, Creighton Arita, Mark Uranaka (back) Melody Miyashiro, Jeff Malins, Bob Landis, Ramona Hinck, Arthur Tsoi and Danette Maruyama

In addition to distributing TouchWorks EHR, our development team created two healthcare applications. First, ConnxtMD, a web-based Practice Management (PM) system, automates office workflow such as scheduling appointments and managing accounts receivables. The second software application is Clinical Quality Solution (CQS) nationally distributed by AllscriptsTM. CQS analyzes data from the EHR and PM systems to derive real-time, clinical decision support information and displays it at the point of care through a patient dashboard. This information allows physicians to take a proactive approach to the patient’s care from simple preventative checkups to more effective chronic disease management. With CQS’s automated reporting capabilities, physicians can participate in Medicare’s quality initiatives such as the Physicians Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) and receive additional financial bonuses with little effort on their part.

Our local clients using CQS have been touting the many benefits that CQS brings to their practices. Dr. John Houk told us, “As a solo practitioner, it was only a dream that I might be able to participate in the PQRI. You folks made it happen.”


TeamPraxis, in partnership with HMSA, is excited to offer an integrated solution that allows physicians to practice the highest possible quality of care and get paid for it. TeamPraxis provides one point of accountability while HMSA provides physicians with upfront funding to reduce the cost barriers in implementing an integrated end-to-end solution for their practice. Moreover, Medicare and other payers are providing quality bonuses that cover most of the ongoing system costs. This collaborative effort demonstrates both organizations’ commitment to improve the quality of patient care in our community.

I am proud to be leading an organization that is instrumental in making an impact on improving the lives of so many people. With advanced technology and through the talents of our employees, TeamPraxis will continue to position itself as a premier leader in transforming healthcare communities nationwide.

 

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