Hilltop Family Physicians - An Independent Practice on the Cutting Edge

It’s not easy to survive in today’s healthcare economy as an independent physician practice. But Hilltop Family Physicians in Parker, Colorado has found ways to make it work. This three-doctor primary care practice finds time to stay ahead of the curve by transforming their care team structure into a patient-centered medical home, embracing technology and tackling new healthcare regulations – all while offering top-quality patient care.

Hilltop Family Physicians has also embraced health information exchange by joining the CORHIO network in 2012. They receive clinical data from area hospitals and labs through their Aprima electronic health record system. In addition, Hilltop has streamlined immunization reporting to CIIS by sending their results through CORHIO. Hilltop was one of the first practices in Colorado to successfully send results through the CORHIO interface and onto the CIIS registry. This project has helped Hilltop meet the public health reporting objective in the EHR Incentive Program, or Meaningful Use.

Hilltop is also working with CORHIO’s Transformation Support Services Team to achieve medical home recognition by NCQA. Practice Administrator Jennifer Souders has been an integral part of all the CORHIO projects and her dedication to innovation keeps Hilltop on the cutting edge. When Souders began looking into the medical home process, she realized the practice was already following a lot of the procedures required for recognition. “We feel like we already do many of the patient-centered criteria and we have been for years – we just never wrote it all down,” she said. “The CORHIO team walking me through the process and giving me pieces and bites to do is really wonderful – instead of trying to tackle the whole project. When I saw that we only needed three more elements to pass, I thought OK, that’s not so bad, we can do this!”

CORHIO applauds Hilltop Family Physicians and appreciates their continued partnership with us – we can’t wait to see what’s next from this innovative practice!