Orchard Software is proud to partner with Pediatric Associates to provide laboratory software that supports their mission to provide loving care to their pediatric patients year-round.
Pediatric Associates: Loving Care 365 Days a Year
Founded in 1955, Pediatric Associates is a trusted, physician-led, comprehensive pediatric practice that started in Hollywood, Florida. Since then, Pediatric Associates has grown to more than 250 locations across the country, experiencing significant growth within the last five years through mergers and acquisitions. Open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, Pediatric Associates has more than 950 clinicians on staff, more than one million active patients, and more than four million office visits annually.
With a focus on superior quality, they have consistently expanded to add locations and services their patients need, including telehealth visits. Pediatric Associates is patient centered medical home (PCMH)- and Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC)-accredited. They are a leader in value-based care with excellent Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) measure performance. HEDIS data identifies performance gaps and establishes targets for improvement, and the clinicians at Pediatric Associates take this feedback seriously.
Large Volume of Point-of-Care Services
At Pediatric Associates, laboratory services are set up to provide exactly what their patients need. They have an in-house laboratory and send some testing to reference labs, but most testing is performed at the point of care to achieve the rapid turnaround time that best benefits patient care. They also offer other ancillary services, such as vitals, X-rays, hearing and vision screenings, EKGs, and spirometry. With enterprise expansion and more than 250 locations, Pediatric Associates knows the benefit of standardized processes, equipment, and software.
Why Orchard Software is a Great Partner for Pediatric Associates
The search to replace an outdated laboratory information system (LIS) started in 2021, looking specifically for an all-encompassing software that could manage testing across the enterprise—tracking test results, monitoring quality control and equipment, and ensuring follow-up of critical values. Pediatric Associates found that Orchard® Point-of-Care™ and Orchard® Outreach™ met their unique needs. They implemented these Orchard Software solutions in 2022.
Cloud Services
Hosting their lab system in the cloud was a top priority for Pediatric Associates. This deployment eliminates the need for on-premises servers and maintenance. Having a cloud-hosted solution allows Pediatric Associates to focus on providing quality care instead of worrying about maintaining their own system security, reliability, or maintenance.
System Flexibility & Configurability
Pediatric Associates, with more than 250 locations, benefits greatly from the flexibility and configurability that Orchard’s products offer. They can configure the order entry window and options for each of their locations to meet workflow needs. “The fact that we could customize the look of each tab and each of the pages was a big deal for us and we really enjoy doing that with Orchard,” said Monique Hayden, MT(ASCP), Director of Diagnostic Services.
Quality Control Management
Pediatric Associates appreciates having the ability to preassign and easily track quality control (QC) in their laboratories using Orchard Point-of-Care.
User Friendly for Non-Lab Trained Staff
The user-friendliness and intuitive user interface of Orchard’s products has made it easy for Pediatric Associates to train non-lab staff to use the system. Their workflow often entails staff coming in, running a few quick tests, and running out to perform other duties, so user-friendly software is a must and is one of the reasons they selected Orchard’s solutions.
Robust Interfacing
To support and automate the high volume of send-out testing their lab manages, the lab software is interfaced to their reference labs. This allows for insurance-specific testing routing and standardized processes for reference lab reporting, including interfacing with the state health departments that have reporting requirements.
Sample Tracking
Sample tracking is another important feature that supports Pediatric Associates’ workflow. They use Orchard products to track reference lab samples and to ensure critical values from those results are followed up on and reported to clinicians in a timely manner.
System Flexibility Affords Expanded Use
In addition to lab and point-of-care testing functionalities, Pediatric Associates expanded the use of Orchard Point-of-Care to track medical equipment maintenance. For their PCMH and AAAHC accreditations, they must track and document maintenance, calibration, and use of medical equipment like X-ray machines, lead aprons, vitals, and baby scales. They built that tracking in Orchard Point-of-Care so that when it’s time to calibrate, the system displays a reminder pop-up on the work list. The staff completes the calibrations and then documents them in the system so they’re readily available for an inspection. “Being able to use Orchard’s products to track our medical equipment maintenance is a cool piece that I think is ‘up and coming’ for point-of-care locations. It’s great that we can use the software to help us keep track of maintenance and have that information ready for our AAAHC inspection,” Hayden said.
Partnership with Aligned Goals
The motto at Pediatric Associates—“Loving Care 365 Days a Year”—is apparent in every one of their patient interactions. Orchard Software is proud to work with healthcare organizations like Pediatric Associates that embrace patient-centered, value-based, quality care.