California Healthcare Foundation

Lessons from the Pilot Project

These tools describe the SPeD model and outline the roles and responsibilities related to enabling small practices to adopt and make meaningful use of EHRs and data-driven improvements. Included are assessment tools, technical guides, checklists, and a playbook.

May 2012

The California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF), in conjunction with a team of advisors, developed the Small Practice eDesign (SPeD) model to help improve small medical practices and their patient outcomes. The model relies on local trusted organizations called “aggregators” to help small practices implement electronic health record (EHR) and revenue cycle management systems. This toolset is a collection of resources for aggregator organizations working with small practices to adopt and meaningfully use EHRs for data-driven improvement.

These tools include assessments to determine aggregator suitability, small practice interest and readiness for change, as well as, how-to guides, FAQs, technical manuals, checklists, and other documents for EHR and revenue management implementation.

These tools describe the SPeD model and outline the roles and responsibilities of participating aggregator organizations, including assessments to determine an organization’s suitability to be an aggregator, tools to assess local small practice interest and willingness to participate in SPeDesign, as well as FAQs, technical guides, checklists, and other documents.

The tools were developed and refined based on the experiences of CHCF and organizations participating in the SPeD pilot implementations.

CHCF is making the guide and toolset available to users who agree to use it only for noncommercial purposes. To request the toolset, please visit www.CHCF.org.