The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) recently honored Coastal Medical, Inc., a private group practice with its headquarters in Providence, R.I., as the winner of the annual Ambulatory HIMSS Davies Award of Excellence. For nearly 20 years, the award has aimed to recognize excellence in health information technology, specifically excellence in use of the EHR to successfully improve quality of care and patient safety.  

Coastal Medical is a physician-owned, physician-governed medical organization with 91 providers in 19 offices across the state of Rhode Island, providing mostly primary care services to 105,000 adult and pediatric patients HIMSS awarded the practice for a fully integrated EHR in every office, as well as clinical quality measurement and reporting. The practice, HIMSS says, saw Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) practice transformation and in early 2007, entered into a Pay-for-Performance contract with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island (BCBSRI). This included meaningful financial incentives for achievement of first generation clinical quality targets.

“Coastal has used the EHR technology platform to establish a strong foundation on which to deliver evidence-based, high quality care and produce measurable outcomes,” stated John Bender, M.D.., chair, Davies Ambulatory Committee, and Medical Director of Miramont Family Medicine, in Ft. Collins, Colo. “All of us on the Davies Ambulatory Committee congratulate Costal Medical Inc. for its focus on improving the quality of healthcare delivery with the best use of health IT.”                                                                                                                                 

Coastal Medical Inc., will be recognized at the 2013 Annual HIMSS Conference & Exhibition in New Orleans, La. on March 3-7, 2013.