PORTLAND, OR – In Jill Arena’s opinion, medical offices can sometimes get too … medical.

Arena, COO of Greenfield Health in Portland, Ore., sees the nine-physician, two-office practice as an example of patient-centered healthcare. Founded in 2000, the practice is designed – both physically and operationally – with the patient experience in mind.

“What do we think patients really want?” asked Arena. “How do patients experience the physician’s office? We need to take apart how we think we’re doing business.”

Arena was a featured speaker at last month’s Towards the Electronic Patient Record (TEPR+) conference and show in Palm Springs, Calif. The conference, presented by the Boston-based Medical Records Institute, attracted roughly 750 attendees and focused on, among other things, the emerging concept of “participatory medicine.”

Arena sees Greenfield Health as a beta test of that concept. The practice, she said, was designed so that the patient can walk right in and see a physician or staff member without having to waste time in a waiting room.

“It’s similar to what happens when somebody comes into your home,” she said. “It’s a lot less clinical. We tend to ‘over-medicalize’ the experience” of visiting a doctor’s office.

Beyond the makeup of the physician’s office, Arena said Greenfield Health makes every effort to involve the patient in all aspects of his or her healthcare. The practice has hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in information technology services that connect physicians with patients through electronic medical records, e-mail and phone systems and other services.

Among the vendors involved in the 22 “moving parts” of the practice’s IT system are GE Healthcare (whose Centricity platform is used) and Kryptiq, which is based in nearby Hillsboro and has been associated with the practice since its inception.