Work IT! Optimize Health Technology with EHR Adoption – Breakaway Thinking

The following is a guest blog post by Carrie Yasemin Paykoc, Senior Instructional Designer / Research Analyst at The Breakaway Group (A Xerox Company). Check out all of the blog posts in the Breakaway Thinking series.
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Investing in an electronic health record (EHR) is largely based on the decision to improve patient safety, align with clinical guidelines, enhance revenue cycle times, and capture government-based incentives. But without a proper EHR adoption plan in place, healthcare providers risk never optimizing their investment and achieving their intended goals.

Once an EHR is implemented, healthcare organizations must continue striving toward their goals to optimize their systems. Improving workflows, establishing best practices and increasing overall proficiency of end-users in this application are all components of optimization. Healthcare organizations that are able to maintain this level of focus will see improved clinical and financial outcomes.

This process isn’t easy and requires a commitment to the initial performance metrics that drove the healthcare organization to purchase the new system. Today, nearly half of all healthcare organizations use an EHR, but many struggle to ensure it provides clinical value across the organization. They carefully select and implement systems but fail to make the tool work as originally envisioned. Just because they bought a new EHR doesn’t mean it is serving their patients, providers, or bottom line.

A parallel comparison can be made with buying a high-end, a mobile exercise device to track aerobic and anaerobic steps. Individuals seeking a healthier lifestyle invest in these devices, hoping it will help them achieve their personal health goals. After making the initial investment and adapting daily habits to wear the device, one can begin to adopt the technology to achieve improved health goals. But realizing these goals takes work and commitment. If performance is not monitored, results can plateau and, in some cases, regress. This could result in a growing waist line for the person trying to lose weight, an ironic and unfortunate twist. For healthcare organizations, their growing waistline is unhealthy organizational performance, visible through increases in adverse drug events, recurrent admissions, revenue cycle times and government penalties, all symptoms of goal misalignment. The more healthcare organizations look away from their initial performance goals and utilize EHRs for data storage only, the more noticeable the symptoms become. Both individuals and healthcare organizations can benefit from the process of system optimization to make the tool work for the betterment of the individual or organization.

Extensive research has been conducted by The Breakaway Group (TBG), A Xerox Company, to identify elements that lead to optimization. TBG reports the key adoption elements exhibited by healthcare organizations that optimize their EHRs:

Engaged and Clinically Focused Leadership
Healthcare organizations must demonstrate engaged and clinically focused leadership. Clinical leaders must align their EHR by refining workflows, templates, utilization, and reporting to meet their organizations’ clinical and financial goals. The Chief Medical Information Officer (CMIO) is well suited for this venture.

Targeted Education and Communication
Healthcare organizations must provide targeted education and communication.  When system upgrades are released, organizations must effectively and efficiently educate end users to alleviate reductions in proficiency and productivity.

Comprehensive Metrics
Healthcare organizations must be able to use EHR data.  Organizations must move past the superficial use of an EHR and begin to analyze what is entered. The EHR is of little value, if the data is neither clinically valuable nor used.

Sustained Planning and Focus
Healthcare organizations must sustain planning and focus. Change occurs frequently in healthcare, so system optimization requires preparation, adjustment and real-time communication.

With these adoption elements, healthcare organizations can make their technology work as originally intended—to improve patient and financial outcomes. To overcome the EHR implementation plateau, they must focus on their original performance goals to truly optimize health information technology systems. This process isn’t easy. It requires endurance, but the payoff is worth it. It’s time to “Breakaway” from the status quo and work IT– by optimizing use of HIT systems!

Carrie Yasemin Paykoc
Xerox is a sponsor of the Breakaway Thinking series of blog posts.

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2 Comments

  • “The EHR is of little value, if the data is neither clinically valuable nor used.”

    I could not agree more. The problem with doing this is twofold. First, the EHR system must have a robust ability to select and report critical data, something that many EHRs lack.

    Second, there has to be a driving business reason for using the EHR to do that reporting. That doesn’t mean there has to be a dollars and cents reason for every inquiry. It does mean a recognition that EHR data is a critical portion of examining how patient health is changed by care.

  • You have a very good point about ehr systems. I think it is like communism. A nice idea but it will never be implemented properly. Really hit home with the mobile-phone fitness device analogy. Good post!

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