See the Transformative Impact of the Right EHR Partner

Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center, a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) based in Kansas City, Missouri, has long been a leader in community health. Under the visionary leadership of Chief Executive Officer, Bob Theis, the organization has prioritized innovation, efficiency, and population health to improve outcomes for underserved populations.

However, back in 2016, a leadership decision led Samuel U. Rodgers to switch from NextGen Healthcare to a different EHR system. This change resulted in decreased flexibility, limited access to actionable data, and stagnation in quality metrics—particularly those tied to HRSA (Health Resources & Services Administration) reporting.

By 2020, the team recognized the need to regain data control and workflow customization to meet their clinical and operational goals. They decided to return to NextGen Healthcare—a bold move just days before the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Among the many benefits of switching back to NextGen Healthcare were the customizable workflows and templates to support consistent and reportable documentation.

“We had data at our fingertips when we were with NextGen [Healthcare]. When we left, we didn’t have that flexibility as much. We were not Quality Leaders until we went back to NextGen [Healthcare]. We switched back on March 1st of 2020. That’s when we became a HRSA Quality Leader again,” said Theis.

Theis relayed that they achieved Bronze Level Health Center Quality Award status, quickly followed by Silver Level Health Center Quality Award status.

“We just keep getting better and better, and knowing the right questions to ask, the right data to look at; teaching everyone the best way to put things into NextGen [Enterprise],” said Theis. “We improved our diabetes measures by three or four percent just by making sure everyone was putting it in the same place."

Population health leads to better funding

One major strategy and solution to improve health across cohorts of patients is population health management. By integrating population health management tools with NextGen Enterprise EHR, Sam Rodgers improved maternal health, leading to the health center receiving $1 million a year for two years for maternal health. Additionally, they integrated the WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) Program and prenatal care for better outcomes.

“We received $2,000,000. Our moms were able to get the dental care they need, and our low birth weight went from 8% to 5.5%. We had a huge drop in low birth weight,” said Theis.

The answer to documentation burden

In October 2024, Bob Theis took a closer look at NextGen Clinical AI and AI Scribe—AI technology designed to reduce documentation burden and enhance provider satisfaction. At NextGen Healthcare’s annual user group meeting, UGM, he noticed major improvements in the AI-assisted documentation technology. Shortly after, the health center had one of their nurse practitioners in their nurse practitioner residency program pilot NextGen Clinical AI. According to the nurse practitioner, it was “life changing.”

“She was documenting six to eight hours on her day off. She was working four days a week and wanted the fifth day off for quality of life. Well, now she has that quality of life,” said Theis.

In addition to improving quality of life for providers, Theis expects this tool will be instrumental in attracting candidates to their nurse practitioner residency program in a competitive hiring environment.

Revenue cycle enhancing solutions

To further their partnership with NextGen Healthcare, Sam Rodgers recently added the NextGen® Charge Review Rules Engine (NextGen Rules Engine) to improve billing and revenue integrity.

“The other thing that I’m really excited about is the rules engine we just purchased. Our director of billing can’t wait to get it up and going,” said Theis. NextGen Rules Engine combined with In-line Edits (RTE) is a cloud- based, comprehensive approach to claims accuracy, automation, and efficient revenue cycle performance. Together, both solutions leverage robust data technology throughout all points in one’s revenue cycle workflow to ensure consistent and uniform review, correction, and management of charges and claims prior to creation and submissions.

Simply put, the data-driven implementation methodology powered by the rules engine will allow Sam Rodgers better control and improve overall revenue cycle performance so they can focus on top issues impacting their bottom line.

HRSA Quality Awards

• Achieved Health Center Quality Leader Bronze Level
• Progressed to Silver Level the following year

Maternal health success

• Secured $2M in HRSA maternal health grants
• Reduced low birth weight from 8% to 5.5%
• Integrated WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) Program and prenatal care for better outcomes

Provider efficiency

• Eliminated 6-8 hours of documentation time per week for one NP using NextGen Clinical AI
• Increased provider quality of life, aiding in recruitment and retention

Data-driven care

• Re-trained teams based on analytics — improving diabetes measures by 3-4%
• Used cohort tracking tools to coordinate care across programs
• Reclaimed flexibility to pilot initiatives and quickly adapt workflows

What's next?

Samuel U. Rodgers continues to scale its partnership with NextGen Healthcare, investing in:

• Expanded AI use cases such as coding suggestions and risk adjustment prompts
• Rules engine implementation to boost RCM and billing performance
• Micro-training and office hours to accelerate provider onboarding and system optimization

“I really love the enthusiasm that you have for the future. The [NextGen Healthcare] leadership invited CEOs, CMOs, and a couple other people from FQHCs to hear what we wanted. I walked around, talked to my providers and asked what they wanted; it was all on the list of things that are being worked on,” said Theis.

The transformative impact of the right EHR partner is clear. Through flexibility, AI innovation, and deep collaboration, Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center has reclaimed its leadership in quality care—and set a course for sustainable, tech-enabled growth.