Written by: Center for Care Innovations

Monterey County, California boasts white sand beaches, lush golf courses, and an aquarium that is among the best in the world. But along with its many tourist attractions, the county has deep pockets of poverty, and many of its residents struggle to put food on the table and pay increasingly stratospheric housing costs.

Many of the county’s poorest citizens rely on Monterey County Health Department Clinics for their care. The nine clinics provide care to over 50,000 county residents, regardless of their ability to pay.

In 2015, Monterey County Health Clinics began using the digital text messaging program, CareMessage, to send their patients appointment reminders. But CareMessage was not compatible with Epic, its electronic health record platform, which meant that staff had to manually transfer information from one platform to another, a tedious and time-consuming task that undermined efficiency.

Monterey County Health Clinics decided to tackle this problem. With the support of our Technology Hub, it was able to achieve an integration of CareMessage and Epic, resulting in improved clinic operations and patient care.