In a post done in 2009 that’s still getting comments, Diane G. offered some interesting commentary that I think is fair warning for those purchasing an EHR (names removed since it could apply to a lot of EHR vendors):

We use Software A for our EMR, but Company A provided the equipment and installation quote for Software A and I can tell you, you’ll want to look at EVERY line they bill to your company. We have been billed for equipment that we never received and interfacing that was never launched. I have spent hours explaining to them what services they have billed us but didn’t provide. I am extremely grateful that we did not purchase their EMR and/or Practice Management product!!

Definitely a good warning for all purchases, but applies to EMR software as well. A number of EHR software companies have really simplified the way they bill and so this is less of a problem with those EHR vendors. However, many EHR vendors still try to pilfer doctors for the extras which can often add up to more than the core product. It’s ugly and unfortunate since it leaves a bad taste in doctors mouths.

Along these same lines is making sure your EHR contract is sound. There’s a whole section on EHR contracts in my EHR Selection e-Book that is worth looking at if you’re going through the EHR process.

As I said in my previous EMR and Health IT in 2012 post, I’m going to create some of my own lists for 2012. I decided to tackle the first one on the list: My 2012 EMR and Health IT Wish List. This was kind of fun to think about. I’m also sure that I’ll come up with other ideas once this is posted, so don’t be surprised if I add things to this list in a future post.

I should also note that I’m not sure any of these things are going to happen in 2012. In fact, I bet that many of them aren’t, but this list isn’t about what is going to happen. This list is about what I wish would happen.

EHR Companies Would Embrace Interoperability – It’s an incredible shame that in 2012 we still don’t have interoperable health records. EHR companies need to get off the stump and make this a reality. The technology is already there and has been there for a while. EHR companies need to start making this dead simple because it’s the right thing to do. Sometimes doing the right thing is more important than the bottom line. Plus, doing the right thing ends up often being the best long term strategy for your bottom line as well.

Start doing what’s right and making your EHR interoperable!

Meaningful Use Would Go Away – I’m actually certain that this one won’t be happening in 2012, but I wish it would. I guess there’s a small chance that it could go away if Republicans take control of Washington and start slashing everything Obama related. However, I have a feeling that even then meaningful use will find its way back into Washington. There’s too much invested in it.

My reasoning for wanting meaningful use gone is clear. It provides a perverse incentive to providers and often incentivizes them to choose an EHR software that doesn’t work well for their practice. As I’ve mentioned in some recent posts, far too many clinics are so focused on meaningful use and EHR incentive money that they’re ignoring the real and tangible business cases for implementing an EHR in their clinic. I think this is a bad thing for healthcare and EHR software in general. The short term bump in EHR adoption won’t be worth the cost of EHR implementations focused on the wrong criteria.

I also really hate how meaningful use has hijacked the software development cycle of pretty much every EHR vendor out there. This is a real travesty since rather than developing for user/customer requirements EHR vendors are developing for a criteria. Talk about a perfect method for destroying innovation. This is a real travesty in my opinion.

Of course, I’m a realist and realize that meaningful use isn’t going away. We have to make the most with what we’re given and live with the realities that exist. However, in this New Year Wish list, I wish that meaningful use would be a past memory.

New Healthcare Model that Provides Care, Not Reimbursement – I’m sure many of you might be thinking that I’m calling for ACO’s in this wish list item. We’ll see how ACO’s evolve, but my gut tells me that the ACO model still won’t make the fundamental change that I wish would happen in healthcare. There’s far too much focus on reimbursement the way our healthcare is structured today. I’m not arguing that doctors and other healthcare professionals not get paid what they deserve. I’m just wishing that there was more focus on care for patients and less worry on maximizing the reimbursement.

How does this have to do with health IT and EHR? I’ve long argued that the biggest bane to EHR systems is the onerous reimbursement requirements. I can’t imagine how much healthcare could benefit from fabulous EHR systems if the energy spent on maximizing reimbursement were spent on improving patient care.

Diabetes Prevention App – I’ll admit that this is a little personal. I come from a long line of diabetes in the genes and I love sweets far too much. I’m pretty much destine to be a diabetic. I think that mHealth apps can have amazing power if done correctly. My wish is for someone to create a Diabetes app that will help me overcome the seeming destiny I have in this regard. The key will probably be illustrating in a profound way the impact of the choices I’m making.

Of course, you could insert hundreds of other chronic illnesses into this wish list too. I’d love to see mobile health work to solve those as well.

A True Patient Identifier – I realize that America is a large place, but we’re also a really creative country that can figure out creative solutions to problems. The lack of a true patient identifier is a challenge and a problem in healthcare. I’d love to see this problem finally resolved. I think every EHR company would rejoice at this as well.

Real EMR Differentiation – My heart absolutely goes out to doctors, practice managers and others who have the unenviable job of trying to sift through the 300+ EMR companies. I’d love for some EMR companies to really do something so innovative to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack.

No doubt part of this problem is what I stated above about meaningful use. Hard to create innovation and differentiation in EHR when you have to develop for a government list of requirements.

EHR Data Liberation – I’ve wanted EHR data Liberation for a long time, but I think in 2012 this is one thing on the list that could become a reality. It’s a bit of a long shot, but I think there’s potential for this to happen.

My gut tells me that if we can find a way to liberate the data that’s stored in EHR software, then we’d see a dramatic increase in adoption of EHR. One of the major concerns doctors have with selecting an EHR is that once they select an EHR they know they’re locked in with that EHR for the long run. If a doctor knew that they could switch EHR software if they made a bad choice, then they’d be much more likely to pull the trigger on EHR adoption.

We need a wave of EHR vendors that aren’t afraid of liberating their EHR data, because they:
1. Know that their EHR software is so good users won’t leave
2. Know that if someone wants to leave their EHR software it’s better that they find one that’s good for them than the few extra dollars the EHR company will make off an unhappy user.

How’s that for a wish list? I think achieving these things would do an amazing amount of good in healthcare and EHR. Of course, I won’t be holding my breathe on any of them happening any time soon. That doesn’t mean I won’t keep holding out hope.

Curt Rosinski offered some really good advice on a previous meaningful use post for those doctors who are evaluating EHR software and the customization features that they offer:

The thing all potential consumers should keep in mind when buying an EHR, EMR or any medical management software is this; the more out-of-the-box the product is, the less customization the product is capable of. Customization in this case being meaningful customization, not screen color or placement of toolbar.

I’m not sure I agree completely that the more out-of-the box the product is, the less customization will be available. This could be the case, but EHR vendors can make it so you can customize everything in the EHR while still preserving a great out-of-the-box EHR experience.

However, the second comment was even more interesting to me. I’m always amazed how some people evaluating an EHR get so annoyed by the color of a window or get so enamored by the size of the font. I’m not saying that the color of the window and size of the font aren’t important. They can be really important in improving the usability of the software. However, if those things are so important to the usability of the system, then they shouldn’t likely make those things part of the customization preference package.

The idea of meaningful EHR customizations is a good one. Look for the EHR that does a great job balancing the out-of-the box EHR implementation experience while still making lots of customizations possible, because you can be sure that 6 months into your EMR implementation you’ll be ready to look at ways to really maximize the use of your EHR.

While attending the EHR Summit by HBMA, I got the chance to learn more about the AZ REC and HIE. Here are some tweets about the things they said that worth noting with my own comments:

Arizona REC

AZ REC had trouble getting vendors to take their free EHR interns. #EHRSummit11

This was pretty interesting since they said that doctors were more than willing to take on their student interns, but vendors were reticent to take them on. I do love the education program that the AZ REC put together. Internships like this are valuable.

Biggest complaint the HIT students had was access to actual EHR software. AZ REC created a EHR software lab to solve it. #EHRSummit11

This is a really common complaint by the RECs. In fact, I just helped a REC get access to some EHR software to solve this problem. It’s amazing to me that more EHR vendors aren’t happy to provide their software for these education programs.

AZ REC has a list serv of 2500 doctors and a list for vendors. See: http://www.arizonarec.org/? #EHRSummit11

I found it interesting that they had a doctor list and a vendor list. Makes sense.

AZ REC looking at optimizing health IT for ACO’s to be sustainable. I think this will be a common strategy. #EHRSummit11

The idea of REC sustainability is an important one. I think many are looking towards the ACO requirements as one pathway to sustainability. Of course, how stable are ACO’s? One thing seems certain, the relationships the RECs create with doctors could be leveraged for good if done right.

Arizona HIE

The case for the benefits of good information from something like a HIE is easy. The problem is making it actually happen. #EHRSummit11

This was my gut response when the AZ HIE was talking about the benefits of having the information an HIE provides. I don’t think I’ve heard anyone say that exchanging information would be a bad thing and produce worse clinical outcomes. Sure, they want to ensure privacy of the data when it’s done, but the benefits of having the best information are completely apparent.

HINAz (AZ HIE) didn’t depend on grants to create the HIE. They focused on the benefits of the HIE to users. #EHRSummit11

This seems like something that’s a bit unique to AZ. Most HIE’s are so focused on the grant funding. In this sense, I think that this might give the AZ HIE a chance to be successful. Plus, I loved that they did actual research into which users benefited from the HIE.

AZ HIE, Hospitals pay 50% of costs, Plans pay 50% of costs. Physicians pay nominal fee to participate (cause nominal benefit). #EHRSummit11

This is where the real fun begins. The hospitals and plans are paying for the HIE since the AZ HIE found that they’re the ones that would benefit from it. They found that doctors received nominal benefits from using the HIE and so they shouldn’t be charged to use it. Of course, the other beneficiaries not mentioned here is the benefit to the patients. I’m sure hospitals and plans will pass the cost on to patients, so I guess that works out in the end.

Today and tomorrow I’ve got the opportunity to attend the EHR Summit that’s being held by the Healthcare Billing and Management Association (HBMA) in Phoenix (officially Scottsdale). I first heard of this conference about a year ago and loved the idea. In fact, this conference was kind of what I’ve dreamed of creating in an EHR conference. The idea is to have actual practical advice on how to select and implement EHR software.

Here’s a sample of some of the topics that will be covered:

• EHR: Where are we Today?
• Vendor Selection
• Medical Legal Considerations
• An Insider’s Perspective
• Training for Meaningful Use
• REC & HIE Update
• Market Needs Your Help with EHR
• Workflow & Process Management
• EHR Implementation Planning
• EHR Implementation Support
• EHR Adoption & Ongoing Support
• EHR Optimization, Meaningful Use & Use in Health Reform

That’s quite a bit different agenda than all the other EMR and healthcare IT related conferences that I’ve seen. I also love that the conference has some built in time for users to get some EHR demos. In fact, it’s almost like they’ve created a track of EHR demos as part of the conference. I do wish they’d had a session on EMR demos on the first day to better help attendees make the most of their EHR demos. Things like how to ask the right questions (ie. Don’t ask Yes/No questions)

I’ll be doing a number of posts talking about the messages shared at the EHR Summit on this site, EMR and EHR, and EMR Thoughts over the next couple of days.

If you don’t want to wait for the blog posts, I’ll be doing a fair amount of tweeting from the event on my @ehrandhit account.

The readers of EMR and HIPAA have been incredible lately in sending in great commentary on the EMR industry. The following is one such commentary about the issues associated with the now widely seen trend of Hospitals acquiring practices. The person asked to remain anonymous and for the names of the specific EHR vendors to be removed. I agreed since I think the trend is more important than the specific companies.

One trend that I find extremely (and personally) troublesome is the migration from homegrown EMR’s to less functional Hospital based EMR’s – a migration that is occurring frequently now that most small practices are being purchased by Hospitals.

In our case, our small hospital administration decided unilaterally (without MD input) to implement a poorly designed EMR from it’s IT vendor. This has been a colossal failure, as none of the doctors were able to use the EMR. Hospitals are easily seduced by their IT vendors, and think that they can have only one software vendor. They think that all EMR’s are basically the same, either a Ford or a Chevy mentality. They don’t want the docs interfering with the decision process. They don’t have any idea of information and work flow in a doctor’s office. And now they are getting ARRA stimulus funds, and sometimes grant money from local endowments.

We doctors have asked that administration find us one practice that is successfully using the EMR they selected. I think they found 1 doctor 1,300 miles away who was able to make it tolerable. The hospital EMR is CHIT certified, so that doesn’t mean much. Hospital Software vendors have quickly tacked together some sloppy EMR’s in order to save their customer base, and have easily deceived administrators into buying these inferior products.

Our administration has pulled back from implementation, just having us use the scheduler, nursing putting in vitals/meds, and we just enter the ICD-9′s and charges. But another push to MU is coming soon. I have told admin that they must cut my daily schedule from 20 to 10 patients per day. I think that the ARRA stimulus funds and this whole Medicare push for EMR is having a negative effect so far, as least for me. I was using [EMR Vendor] (and still am unilaterally) to organize my data, and generate notes. It’s light years ahead of the EMR the software vendor selected.

I have heard my story repeated many times. The trend of Hospital owned practices may be inevitable, but it has severe negative consequences for EMR, in my opinion.

John’s Comments: While I don’t necessarily agree with the broad ranging comments about administrators not caring or listening to doctors, I’ve heard it far too many times to disagree completely. There’s little doubt from my experience that many hospitals don’t do a great job listening to doctors in selecting an EMR software. However, I’ve also seen many doctors who are terrible to work with when it comes to any discussion of an EMR. So, let’s not kid ourselves into thinking that the doctors are completely blameless either.

One important point that is made is that doctors like using EMR software that they select. As more and more hospitals acquire practices, this issue is going to come to a head. I won’t be surprised if it’s actually a major part of the reason that the cycle of independent doctors starts again.

I’ve been really intrigued lately by the changing media landscape. Things like Blogs and Twitter are providing opportunities for basically anyone to be able to share a message with the world. Certainly, many of the blogs don’t get read and a tweet on Twitter falls off people’s radar very quickly. However, some of the better or more interesting ones rise to the top and provide an interesting and sometimes dissenting voice to the conversation. Personally, I think this type of open discussion around topics is valuable and beneficial as long as people maintain a certain level of respect and decency.

My question to you then, is what would you say to a Healthcare IT audience?

As I considered on this difficult question myself, I decided the message that I would want to deliver: You can resist all you want, but the future of healthcare will require IT.

Pretty much every day, someone comes on this site to talk about the benefits and challenges associated with EMR and EHR in their office. As I’ve listened to the various challenges that people have posted, I’m sympathetic to them. However, almost all of those I’ve heard boil down to poor EMR selection or poor EMR implementation.

To me, the EMR selection is the absolute most important part of the EMR implementation process. Far too many doctors and clinics don’t take the time and effort that’s required to really go through a proper EMR selection process. I’m very sympathetic to them for a lot of reasons (ie. It’s not their job or interest, there are 300 EHR vendors, there aren’t great resources for differentiating EHR, there are a lot of perverse incentives, etc). However, it’s worth the cost to do it right. Otherwise, you should wait until you can do it right.

However, I believe that EMR is still only one small part of how healthcare IT is going to impact healthcare. Just last night I was at a local event and someone who use to work in the casino industry has been working for the past year or so on an app that helps improve doctor to doctor communication. Fascinating stuff.

Personally, I see us just at the very begging of a revolution in healthcare IT. IT is going to start invading every part of healthcare and will pretty much be impossible to avoid.

Certainly there will be some (possibly many) who continue to resist the adoption of technology in their clinic. However, I’m seeing more of a shift by patients and doctors that are interested in finding more ways to integrate technology into their healthcare. Most of the doctors aren’t sure what to do next, but they’re looking.

I can certainly understand and appreciate those that say that the current EMR and healthcare IT offerings aren’t up to snuff. The fact is that many of them aren’t. However, that doesn’t change my belief that IT is still going to change how healthcare is provided. It just may mean that healthcare will be changed by an IT offering that most of us don’t know about today.

My greatest wish would be that we could close the case on whether healthcare IT is important and/or it can change healthcare. Instead, let’s put our energy into finding the ways that it can change healthcare IT for good. All of us focused on using healthcare IT and EMR for good in healthcare would produce some amazing results.

Time for the latest entry in my series of Common EHR Implementation Issues. See also my previous posts on Unexpected EHR Expenses, EHR Performance Issues and a little follow up to avoiding the EHR performance issues altogether.

This weeks common EHR implementation issue is: Inadequate EHR Templates.

Before I begin with the major issues of inadequate EHR templates, it’s worth noting that there are a few EHR software out there that use a different EHR documentation paradigm than templates. For example, some use voice recognition to power their documentation. Others have a system that learns your documentation over time and based on that learning remembers how you want to document certain procedures. Others, use lots of independent documentation methods (one EHR vendor calls them controls – check box, radio button, freetext field, etc.) which can be grouped and used in interesting ways.

However, even with all of the above alternative documentation methods, there’s often an element of templating that’s occurring. They’re PR and marketing people will shudder at the term template, but concepts related to templates seem to pretty much always apply. For example, in voice recognition there’s something called a Macro. That’s basically a template. The EHR system that learns your documentation method is just using your initial documentation in the EHR to create personalized templates of how you like to document. The independent documentation methods often group those various “controls” into groups of common visits. That sounds like a template to me.

I’d be interested to hear of an EHR system that doesn’t use the principles of templates. It is worth noting that all EHR templates aren’t created equal. Some are much more flexible than others. Now to some details.

The inadequate EHR templates shows itself in a number of different ways.

No Specialty Specific EHR Templates – This has to be the complaint I hear the most. It usually goes something like this, “The EHR salesperson said they had templates, but they don’t have any templates I can use.” Did someone say EMR salesperson mis-communication? Yep, happens all the time. Let’s be honest for a second. How could the EHR salesperson know how good their cardiology or neurology templates really are? They just go by what they hear and what they’re told by the EHR company.

Incomplete or Unusable EHR Templates – You may have noticed a subtlety in the quote I put above. At the end the doctor says “templates I can use.” Maybe the EHR salesperson isn’t lying to you about them having those cardiology or neurology templates. Maybe they do have a bunch of templates for those specialties (or whatever specialty that interests you). However, just because they have templates for those specialties doesn’t mean that you’re going to want to use any of the templates that they’ve created.

My favorite complaint is when they say that the specialty templates seem to have been created be a general medicine doctor and not an actual specialist from that field. I’ve heard it far too much not to mention it.

The other major problem with this point is the unique documentation preferences of each doctor. Has there ever been any two doctors that document the same way? We could debate the good and bad merits of such documentation, but the point is that each doctor is very different. Some feel the need to over document the encounter. Other doctors want to just document the bare minimum. Plus, some (purposefully or not) do a terrible job documenting the visit. The templates in an EHR could reflect any of these various documentation patterns and depending on your perspective could mean that EHR has inadequate templates for your needs.

Hard to Modify, Add to, or Adjust – While not specifically an inadequate template, this is an important part of templates. Turns out that if a user can easily modify, add to or adjust a template that is inadequate, you’re going to be a lot better off. Some template systems are like pulling teeth to modify. Others are amazing at how you can on the fly modify the template.

One promise I can make you, You WILL want to modify their templates. I can’t say I’ve ever heard of someone using the templates perfectly out of the box. Well, maybe I’ve heard of one or two using them, but that was when they were complaining that they had no way to modify the things they wanted to change.

Avoiding EHR Template Inadequacies

The best way to avoid this issue is to test drive the EHR software and the specialty specific templates you hope to use. Run through the templates like you’re charting on some common patients. You’ll learn a lot about what templates are available doing this than anything else. You’ll see if the templates are overkill or below standard for your needs.

Another great test is to try using multiple templates for a complex patient. How easily is that done and how well does the documentation display?

Then, during your EHR demo with the EHR salesperson, ask them to modify part of the EHR template they’re using to document. Tell them you don’t like to ask one of those questions, so you’d like to see them remove it from the template. Many are likely to respond, “It can be done, but I’d have to switch systems to do it or I’d have to call in to tech support to make the change.” I think we all know the real message they’re sending.

For those not interested in EHR templates, you might take a second to read Dr. West’s Experience implementing EHR templates in his office.

In my post about the common EHR implementation problem of EHR slowness, I mentioned that I’d follow up with a post on how you can avoid the EMR slowness issue altogether. It’s better to avoid than fix problems.

The best way to approach EHR performance issues is to make them part of your EHR selection process. EHR performance issues could and should be a deal breaker for you when you’re evaluating EHR companies. How then can you identify EHR software that might have these performance issues?

Red Flag #1 – EHR Demo Slowness – Bring a red pen to your demo and every time they say something like, “It’s not usually this slow?” or “It must be slow because it’s running on my laptop.” make a BIG RED mark on your paper (or tablet if you’re advanced like that). Even one red mark should be cause for concern and investigation.

Certainly there are situations where environmental issues can cause slowness to an EHR. So, you can’t completely rule them out completely for this, but this is their demo. This is there one time to shine. If they can’t get their EHR demo running at full speed, what makes you think an EHR production environment will be much better?

You can make an extra red mark if it’s a SaaS EHR that’s providing the demo. They might say it’s just “the internet connection.” Well, guess what? Soon, that’s going to be you using that EHR and often on similar internet connections.

Of course, the message to EHR vendors is to make sure your demo runs as fast as your production system.

Red Flag #2 – Site Visit Slowness – While the demo can tell you a lot about an EHR software, it can’t necessarily tell you the speed of the EHR software. Just because the EHR is fast during the EHR demo, doesn’t mean that same EHR software will be fast in a production environment. Add this to the multitude of reasons why a site visit to a current user of that EHR is so important.

Make sure to do that site visit at one comparable in size and users to your clinic. You don’t want to look at the EHR responsiveness of a solo practice if you’re going to be a 6 provider multi clinic setup. Size matters when it comes to EHR speed.

Once on site, you can get an idea of the speed and responsiveness of the EHR software in two ways. First, observe the users of the EHR in the clinic. See if they exhibit any of the systems listed in the first section of this post. Another observation is to see how quickly they’re clicking around the EHR. If you see a lot of clicks in a row with little waiting in between clicks, that’s a great thing. If you see them click, wait, click, wait, click, click , wait. Be afraid.

The second way is to ask the EHR users. The problem with doing this is that only one response has value. If they say the EHR is slow, then you’ve gleaned some important information that’s worth checking on. If they say the EHR is fast, then you don’t necessarily know. The problem is that you don’t know what the user considers fast. What’s their frame of reference for saying it’s fast? Do they know what fast is? Have they just been using the EHR software so long that they’ve hit a rhythm that makes it feel faster than it really is? It’s a good sign if they say that it’s fast, but take it with a grain of salt.

Red Flag #3 – Use A Demo EHR System Yourself – Most EHR vendors will provide you a way to demo the product yourself. This isn’t a fool proof method to test EHR slowness, but it’s another decent test of the EHR’s responsiveness. Try it out using your internet connection and your computer hardware. Nothing like first hand experience documenting some patient visits to learn about the speed of an EHR.

EHR Speed Suggestion – Don’t Skimp on Hardware
Far too often I see a clinic skimp on the hardware requirements and regret it later. In fact, they often end up spending the money twice since they have to buy new hardware since they skimped in the beginning.

Of course, this suggestion can be taken too far as well. The computer and laptop manufacturers will try to sell you the whole kitchen and you might only need the stove and refrigerator. To put it in more practical terms, you’re going to want plenty of RAM, but do you really need the webcam, Blu-ray player, and special 100 in 1 media device?

Just because an EHR vendor says their EHR software can work on a certain hardware configuration doesn’t mean it should be used on that hardware configuration. In the middle there’s a spot between can and overkill that’s called optimal. Find that hardware configuration and you’ll be a much happier EHR user.

Conclusion
Don’t accept an EHR that’s slow. Make sure that the EHR performs at a satisfactory level. I know of nothing that frustrates a clinic more than a slow EHR.

This was a great piece of advice that was given at my Health Tech Next Generation EMR 101 panel.
@2healthguru – Gregg Masters
We run from EMR vendors w/products that offer lots of free hours of training. Means EMR UI not Intuitive @brandrew0 #HTng11

I’d only clarify that unlimited free support is good, but it’s when they suggest you use a week of that free support that you run.