How Gonzaba Medical Group built trust and improved satisfaction with InteliChart
Company background
Gonzaba Medical Group is one of San Antonio, Texas's largest senior primary care and specialty care groups. It is comprised of nine medical centers that employ almost 900 staff members. Gonzaba has earned the Gold Seal from The Joint Commission, the most prestigious independent evaluator in the nation, and it’s among the highest-ranked by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA).
Serving Communities for Over 60 Years
9 Locations
Over 900 Employees
One of the largest senior primary care & specialty care medical groups in San Antonio
Challenges
Pamela Velasquez returned from maternity leave in October 2021 to fill a newly created role at Gonzaba as the Manager of Patient Access Center (PAC) Operational Initiatives. One of the primary roles of this position is to manage patient-facing vendors and ensure patient interactions with the organization are as seamless as possible.
The motto of Gonzaba is Como familia – like family. “Our mission is to treat all our patients and team members like family," said Velasquez. "That means we must have the best patient portal for our patients. It must be user-friendly and reliable if we are going to put our name behind it.”
Gonzaba caters to patients 65 and older. Although this demographic is not traditionally known for its technology use, Gonzaba wanted to ensure patients who used their patient portal had a positive experience. As Velasquez started digging into their portal's performance, she quickly realized there was room for improvement.
Gonzaba’s portal had been in place for two years and two months, which meant they were contractually obligated to remain with their vendor. However, after examining the agreement, Velasquez discovered portal performance was in breach of the contract and moved forward with the search for a new vendor.
Challenges with secure messaging
"Patient messages sent through the portal weren't coming through, which was especially problematic," said Velasquez.
"Some providers requested patients send their daily blood sugar readings so progress could be monitored. When we didn't receive the messages, clinicians couldn't provide the level of care they wanted."
Not only did unreliable message functionality affect care, but it also undermined patient trust.
Challenges with the patient portal
Another issue that came to Velasquez's attention was that lab results were only sometimes displayed in the portal, causing patients to call the office for their results. "Our previous portal didn't have an app. So, patients needed access to a computer to log in or would have to pull up the URL on their smartphone or tablet, which was not ideal. They would be very frustrated when they called our office for their labs."
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"We must have the best patient portal for our patients. It must be user-friendly and reliable if we are going to put our name behind it.”
— Pamela Velasquez, Patient Access Center Manager
InteliChart solutions
After an extensive search of patient engagement vendors, Gonzaba chose InteliChart’s Patient Portal and Patient Notify solutions. “InteliChart’s integration with our athenahealth platform was, of course, a leading reason for choosing their Patient Portal. But another factor that came into play was that InteliChart integrates with many different EHR platforms, letting us switch vendors in the future if we choose to do that,” said Velasquez.
In addition to InteliChart's 99.9% uptime, Velasquez said other features factored into their decision. "We liked the visual effects of the portal. For example, when patients click on test results, a little window shows normal ranges in green and abnormal ranges in an orange-reddish color. We could see that helping our patients understand their test results.”
Velasquez cited other reasons for choosing Patient Portal. “InteliChart’s ability to cover EHR downtime was a big plus for us. If we can’t access our athenahealth platform, we can use Patient Portal to see chart notes, medications, and lab results. We can continue running as normal despite not having access to our EHR. Everything we input into InteliChart will go into the EHR once it's up and running again.”
According to Velasquez, adding Patient Notify to their platform was a natural fit and allowed them to consolidate vendors and streamline workflows. "We had a full-time employee manually inputting confirmed appointments into our old system. We were excited to be able to allocate that labor elsewhere."
Key features InteliChart delivered
01
Intuitive User Experience
02
Ability to Cover EHR Downtime
03
Consolidated Vendors
04
Streamlined Workflows
Older adults are embracing technology and are the fastest growing group of patient portal account holders.
The most impactful results for Gonzaba are difficult to quantify but essential for an organization’s success: newfound trust in their portal and delighting their staff and patients with new technology options. Here are just a few of the benefits they've realized since establishing a partnership with InteliChart.
A Trusted Solution
“Our patients and providers had completely lost trust in our old portal’s secure messaging system, and we were concerned it would take some time to build back that trust."
"After we started using InteliChart’s Patient Portal, providers realized almost immediately that we now had a system they could depend on. They saw how fast they received messages from patients and how they could rely on the system to deliver responses quickly," said Velasquez.
"Our staff is excited about the impact secure messaging has had on their workflows."
Seamless Integration
The speed of InteliChart’s system has benefited Gonzaba in other ways. Velasquez explained, “One of the things we like best is how it provides real-time information. If we upload chart notes or lab results into the EHR, patients are notified and can access their information within a minute."
User-Friendly Design
Patient Portal has been such a success that Velasquez worked with their marketing department to create an instructional video for patient waiting rooms. It shows how easy it is to register for the Portal as well as how to make appointments, create refill requests, and access test results. Within the first four months of go-live, portal use was on an upward trajectory.
According to Velasquez, "We expect to surpass our old portal's registrations in another five months or so. It is amazing when you compare the number of registrations over the last few months to the fact that we had our last portal a little over two years."
More Than Reminders
Patient Notify has had a positive impact on operations as well. “Patients like the option to add their appointment to their calendar on their computer or smartphone. And, the Google Map functionality has helped patients find our offices,” said Velasquez. “Staff finds the same-day messaging capability very useful when a provider is out unexpectedly and they need to notify patients. The icing on the cake is that Patient Notify costs us less than our old vendor and delivers much more.”
"Patient Notify costs us less than our old vendor and delivers much more."
"Providers realized almost immediately that we now had a portal they could depend on."
— Pamela Velasquez, Patient Access Center Manager, Gonzaba Medical Group
Considerations for other healthcare providers
When asked what the most gratifying aspect of working with InteliChart for Velasquez was she said seeing how patients react to the new technology.
"Just yesterday, I showed a 69-year-old patient our portal and helped her download the app,” recounted Velasquez. “After the patient saw how easy it is to access the portal through the app, she said to me, ‘Wow. You just made my day.’”
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