As the only full-service healthcare facility for a 100-mile stretch of California’s Central Coast, Big Sur Health Center has to be prepared for the expected, the unexpected and everything in between. For all its natural splendor, Big Sur is also a land of danger, with wildfires, torrential rains, and constant threat of earthquakes.

In 2008, the Basin Complex Fire burned over 130,000 acres, forcing the evacuation of most of the community. We quickly put all our medical and financial records into boxes ready to move to a safe location. Later, when we were debriefing, we asked ourselves: What would have worked better? What is our number one priority in upgrading our emergency preparedness plan? We concluded an Electronic Medical Record System was the answer.

Technology continues to advance in healthcare, but an epidemic of physician burnout continues to threaten the quality of both the doctor’s and the patient’s experience. Between 2011 and 2014, burnout increased from 45.5% to 54.4%, according to the American Journal of Medicine. That had a negative impact on the quality of care, patient safety, and provider and patient satisfaction. While some EHR companies’ solutions may actually make the burnout problem worse by forcing providers to spend even more time on their computers, eClinicalWorks is providing tools that help providers actually reduce the risks of burnout.

For today’s busy physicians, finding ways to speed workflows without sacrificing accurate, quality care is critical to meeting the needs of their patients. According to a July 2018 study of U.S. physicians conducted by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine, 55 percent reported symptoms of burnout. The study found that physician burnout is as important a factor in medical errors as unsafe medical workplace conditions — if not more so.

V11, the latest version of our core EHR, is transforming healthcare by providing physicians and medical staff with tools for comprehensive documentation, in-depth understanding, greater value, and higher satisfaction — for users and patients.