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EMR & Patient Safety, Meaningful EHR Measures, and the Patient Portal “Switch”

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What an important topic of discussion. In fact, it makes me want to look at writing a whole series of articles on the patient safety issues using an EMR and also the patient safety issues of not using an EMR. Much of it I’ll be covering in my EHR benefits series, but quite a different angle. Although, the ethics side of it could be really interested. I’m glad Dr. Wes is starting this discussion.


I keep wishing it was interoperability, but I do think we could go way too far when it comes to adding more measures and end up with measures that provide little to no value if we’re not careful.


I love that people think that implementing a patient portal is as easy as flipping a switch. I can have a full EMR at my fingertips in 2 minutes by signing up at one of the Free EHR, but that misses so many important parts of implementing an EMR. The same goes for a portal. It takes a little more thought to implement a patient portal than just flipping a switch.

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January 20, 2013 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Filed Under: EHR  Electronic Health Record  Electronic Medical Record  EMR  EMR Implementation  Healthcare  Meaningful Use  Patient Portal
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The Fiscal Cliff of Primary Care

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The Hello Health blog has a really interesting article up discussing what they called the Primary Care Fiscal Cliff. The thing I like most about the post is the data they provide on what’s happening with primary care doctors. Take for example this list of statistics:

  • Primary care practice income rose just $500 from 2008-2011
  • Operating expenses of a practice continues to rise each year
  • Primary care physicians can spend an average of 13 hours a week of uncompensated care worth over $30,000 in lost revenue a year
  • The cost of a traditional electronic health record can easily exceed $20,000 in the first year with a 5-year projected cost approaching $50,000 per physician

I’m not sure that the US government’s fiscal cliff has much relationship to the primary care doctor fiscal cliff (except for the possible Medicare cuts), but it’s very safe to say that primary care doctors are in a real financial predicament.

In the Hello Health post they suggested from their own research that practice finances and EHR are the two issues keeping primary care physicians up at night. I’m sure these findings won’t be a surprise to any primary care doctors. Plus, it’s worth noting that the finances of a primary care practice are tied to an EHR in many ways.

I have often questioned how much influence the government EHR incentive money has had on getting doctors to adopt EHR. Whenever I do, I usually get a response from a primary care doctor saying that they wouldn’t be implementing an EHR if it weren’t for the EHR incentive money and that they were depending on the EHR incentive money to help cover the new EHR expense.

In my recently started EHR benefit series I’m hoping to expand the thinking when it comes to EHR revenue implications. There are still tens of thousands of primary care doctors that need to implement an EHR or replace their existing EMR. Understanding the financial ties to EHR will help a practice ensure a more successful EHR implementation.

At the core of the question is whether EHR software is a financial benefit or a financial loss. The cop out answer to that question is that it depends on how you implement the EHR and which EHR you implement. I wish someone would take the time to study the top 20 EHR companies and evaluate how practices have done pre-EHR implementation and post EHR implementation. Plus, they’d need to take into account the cost of an EHR. That type of study would produce a lot of interesting EHR data.

My gut feeling having participated in numerous EHR implementations and heard from thousands of other EHR implementations is that the result is usually a wash. In most EHR implementations I don’t think there’s a net financial gain or loss. There are outliers on both sides of that spectrum, but I think for most it has some pros and some cons.

With that said, I think there are long term benefits to a practice that has an EHR. While the immediate financial returns may not come, I think that the EHR in a practice is going to be essential for many of the financial gains a practice wants to achieve in the future. The most obvious example is becoming part of an ACO. Can you really get the financial benefits of being in an ACO without an EHR? I think the answer will likely be no. You need the EHR data to obtain and report on the ACO improvements your practice achieves.

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December 20, 2012 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Filed Under: ACO  ARRA  EHR  EHR Benefits  EHR Stimulus  Electronic Health Record  Electronic Medical Record  EMR  HITECH
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First Hand EMR User Experiences, Slaying the Paper Dragon, and EMR GUIs

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Time again for a quick look around some of the EHR and Health IT topics being discussed on Twitter. It’s an interesting time for healthcare IT on Twitter. They’ve started accepting nominations for what they’re calling the #HIT100. A number of people have already nominated my @techguy and my @ehrandhit Twitter accounts as a #HIT100 nomination. I’m honored that people would consider me in that group. I’ll be interested to see who ends up making it on the list. Those lists aren’t perfect, but I enjoy them for discovering new people I didn’t know about.

Also, before I go through some tweets, be sure you check out the Around Healthcare Scene post on EMR and EHR.


I love Inga from HIStalk and I love these first person perspectives and comments on EMR software. We need more doctors, practice managers, nurses, etc talking about their experience. Props to Inga for putting that together.


I love the concept of the “paper beast.” Such a perfect description and something that so many people forget about when their planning their EHR implementation. Dealing with the existing and future paper (yes, paperless is a myth) is an absolute must in a good EHR implementation.


This is a topic we’ve discussed many times before. Although, I think we need to keep pointing it out so that physicians take a good hard look at the documentation method of EHR software. There are so many options out there that doctors shouldn’t settle for something less than optimal.

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July 1, 2012 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Filed Under: EHR  Electronic Health Record  Electronic Medical Record  EMR  HealthCare IT
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HIMSS Stage 7 Hospitals, HIE Decreases Lab Orders, EHR Implementation Depends on Teamwork

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Happy Easter to everyone reading this and to those who celebrate it. To those who don’t celebrate it, I’d suggest you go and buy the delicious Cadberry chocolate eggs. Not the ones with the creme filling, but the ones in the purple bag. They’re stunningly delicious and should be on sell tomorrow. Unless you live in Las Vegas, and then please leave them so I can buy them. Thanks! While these delicious chocolate eggs have little to do with the true meaning of Easter, they do provide a lot of joy and that’s core to Easter for me.

Easter aside, let’s take a look at some of the various EMR and Healthcare IT related tweets that have come out recently.

This is interesting when you add it to all the reports that say that the US healthcare system is so much worse than the rest of the world. Of course, the US health system is much larger than most other health systems. It also might point to the HIMSS stage 7 status having little real meaningful as far as health IT adoption. It could also point that HIMSS hospital stages aren’t looked at internationally so no one takes the time to meet them. Basically, I wouldn’t read too much into these numbers.

This tweet goes in nice contrast to the report that circled around recently that doctors were more likely to order tests using an EHR than pre-EHR. Mostashari and others took exception to the study and wrote lengthy responses to the study. Of course, the more I read these studies the more disappointed in how most media reports the studies. They make for good headlines, but when you dig deep into the studies you realize that they often have a much more limited scope than what the headline suggests.

I have no idea who “Mike on Healthcare” is (Looks like he’s @MichaelCrosnick on Twitter), but looking at the blog post that Lucia links to I’d like to meet Mike. In that post, he highlights the importance of getting staff buy-in during an EHR implementation and the idea of physician champions. Those are two of my core elements when talking about an EHR implementation. Great to have Mike adding to the collecting EHR knowledge in the healthcare IT blogosphere.

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April 8, 2012 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Filed Under: EHR  Electronic Health Record  Electronic Medical Record  EMR  EMR Implementation  HealthCare IT  HIE  Hospital EHR  Hospitals
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Top Five ICD-10 Pitfalls – “Top 10″ Health IT List Series

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Today is going to be the last day looking at other people’s “Top Health IT Lists” since tomorrow I think I’ll create my own Top 10 Health IT 2011 List and then for the New Years I’ll see about doing a Top 10 Health IT in 2012 list. However, today let’s look at something that will likely make the Top 10 2012 Health IT issues: ICD-10. Government Health IT recently wrote an article what they call the Top 5 ICD-10 Pitfalls.

1. Reporting: I’m sure that many think that ICD-10 is just going to happen and be fine. They’ll assume that their reports are just going to work with ICD-10 since they worked with ICD-9. Don’t be so sure. Test the reports so you know one way or another. Diving a little deeper beforehand is a lot better than learning about the problems after.

2. Overlooking impacted areas: Much like an EHR implementation, don’t forget the other people that are affected by ICD-10. Involve everyone in the process so that they can share their concerns so they can be addressed. Plus, by having them involved you’ll get much better buy in from the staff.

3. Teaching old dogs new tricks: ICD-10 is a different beast and will require significant training even if you have an expert ICD-9 coder with years of experience. Don’t underestimate the cost to train your coders on ICD-10.

4. Preparing for impact on productivity: The article mentions Canada’s loss of productivity during their implementation of ICD-10. Do we think we’re going to be any different? Remember also that productivity loss can come in a lot of different places (which is kind of a repeat of number 2 above).

5. Communicating with IT vendors: It’s one thing to trust that your EHR and other health IT vendors are prepared to deal with ICD-10. It’s another to blindly follow whatever you’re being told. Remember at the end of the day it’s your organization that will suffer if your health IT vendor is not ready. I like to use the phrase, trust but verify.

Be sure to read the rest of my Health IT Top 10 as they’re posted.

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December 30, 2011 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Filed Under: EHR  Electronic Health Record  Electronic Medical Record  EMR  Healthcare  HealthCare IT  ICD-10
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The Arizona REC and HIE at EHR Summit

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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.

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November 18, 2011 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Filed Under: ARRA  EHR  EHR Stimulus  Electronic Health Record  Electronic Medical Record  EMR  EMR Implementation  EMR Selection  HealthCare IT
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EHR Summit by Healthcare Billing and Management Association (HBMA)

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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.

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November 17, 2011 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Filed Under: ARRA  EHR  EHR Stimulus  Electronic Health Record  Electronic Medical Record  EMR  EMR Implementation  EMR Selection  HealthCare IT
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Common EHR Implementation Issue – EMR Upgrade Problems

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I’m really excited that this Common EHR implementation issues series has been so popular. If you missed it, you can see the previous posts in the series: Unexpected EHR Expenses, EHR Performance Issues, a little follow up to avoiding the EHR performance issues altogether, and inadequate EHR templates.

This weeks common EHR implementation issue is: EMR Upgrade Problems

I’d like to categorize this EHR implementation issue into two areas. One is upgrading to an EHR from an old legacy EHR and/or PMS. The second is upgrading your existing EHR that’s just outdated. I’ll take them in reverse order.

Upgrade of Existing Outdated EHR
In this world of your web browser and operating system auto updating at regular intervals it’s sometimes hard to remember that not all software does that. In fact, it turns out that most software doesn’t auto update (often for good reason). Of course, this problem doesn’t apply to a SaaS based EHR software since those updates are applied whether you like it or not. The nice part is that the SaaS EHR updates appear to the user to just happen automatically with little to no intervention on their part. Of course, we’ll save what happens when a SaaS EHR update causes you problems for another post. In the client server world of EHR (or hybrid EHR as some like to call themselves when they’re web based on an in house server) you will have to deal with updating your EHR.

I think with rare exception, it’s a huge mistake to not keep your EHR software up to date (goes for most other software as well). I’m not suggesting that even client server software should auto update. Considering the deployment and upgrade model of most EHR software, it’s almost essential to review the new feature list before doing an update to ensure that the update won’t cause you unnecessary heartache. Understanding the changes that will happen with the EHR Upgrade will let you warn your users about it so that they don’t come running into your office after the upgrade wondering why their favorite feature was changed.

What’s the problem with not upgrading? Many might just think that they don’t need to update their EHR software since they don’t want/need the extra features that are part of the upgrade. This is a bad strategy for a couple reasons. First, there are often security fixes that are part of the EHR upgrade that you’ll be missing out on if you don’t upgrade. Second, a bunch of relatively minor updates is much better on a clinic than one massive one that requires a ton of change. Third, when a future update comes that has a feature you do want, it’s not always pretty to go through multiple upgrades at the same time. Fourth, try calling the EHR support when you’re on an old version. Most of the time they’re going to say you need to upgrade for them to appropriately support you.

One other suggestion on EMR Upgrades now that I’ve supported the idea of upgrading. Just because I suggest you upgrade to the latest version of your EHR, doesn’t mean you have to be the beta tester for the company. Do the upgrade early in the process, but not necessarily so early that you’re going to be the bug tester for the company.

Upgrading an EHR from a Legacy EHR or PMS
This situation happens most often when either a clinic decides to switch from their old hasn’t been updated legacy PMS (which might include some basic EHR features) or when a clinic decides to move off their existing EHR to a new one.

Upgrading from a legacy PMS could easily be a whole series of blog posts. Suffice it to say that the biggest challenge with the upgrade from the old legacy PMS system is often getting the data out of it. Some legacy PMS systems don’t provide that data willing. In fact, many will even charge you to get access to it. They’ve basically lost you as a customers, so they’re trying to maximize whatever revenue they can get. It’s not pretty.

Even if you can get access to the data, there’s often a lot of data manipulation that will have to occur. A common problem that’s related to this is whether you even want to get the data out of the old PMS. Far too often, the data in the old legacy system has so much junk in it, that it’s worth considering the option of starting from scratch. It’s not pretty to upload inconsistent and ugly data from a legacy system into your nice, new EHR software.

Switching from one EHR software to another is becoming more and more common. In 2-3 years I believe we’re going to see an amazing influx of EHR software switches. It will be the topic du jour. We’re already starting to see it in a number of situations: an EHR that isn’t certified, an EHR that the doctor hates, an EHR that’s gone under, an EHR that’s sold to another company, etc.

The biggest problem right now with switching EHR software is that there’s no standard for the data to be exported and imported into a new EHR company. Some of you might remember my post asking EHR vendors to consider the value of EHR data liberation. In it I describe why not only is it the right ethical thing to do, but it also can make a lot of business sense to do so. Sadly, I’ve only really seen one EHR software that has embraced the concept of really liberating the data in their EHR.

I’d love to support a movement from EHR vendors that embrace the concept of EMR data liberation. I imagine most are too afraid of giving their users an easy option to leave their EHR. It’s too bad EHR vendors are so focused on protecting their business instead of focusing everything they do on the customer experience, but I digress.

Considering the above described state of EHR data export, you can see why moving to an EHR is such an issue. It’s worth mentioning this topic before you even select an EHR. Before purchasing the EHR, ask the question, What if this EHR is terrible and I want to switch? This is water under a bridge if you’re already in a compromising position under contract with an EHR you don’t like.

Unfortunately, I don’t really have very many great suggestions for those in this position. Just some words of comfort. First, switching EHR software can actually be easier than implementing an EHR in the first place. You already have the computers and IT infrastructure. Plus, for some reason second EHR implementations have a much higher success and satisfaction rate from what I’ve seen. Second, while it’s a bitter bullet to bite, everyone that I know that’s done it wishes they’d done it earlier. Although, don’t rush into another EHR just because. Take your time to select an EHR properly if you’re going to switch, but don’t be afraid to switch based on what economists call sunk costs. Third, this is one case where it’s often good to hire someone who’s done these type of EHR switching before. They can be a big help.

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September 29, 2011 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Filed Under: EHR  Electronic Health Record  Electronic Medical Record  EMR  EMR Implementation  HealthCare IT
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EMR Under Construction (Implementation) Sign

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I saw a tweet of a picture from the front desk of a doctor’s office that’s implementing an Electronic Medical Record in their office. I’ll embed the image below, but since it’s a little hard to read, here’s the text from the sign:

UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Pardon us while we improve your visit.

In order to provide you with the most efficient visit possible, MedExpress is installing an EMR (Electronic Medical Records) system.

This technology enables MedExpress to provide you even more convenient care, and ensures that your records will hold more accurate documentation, in a safer, more concisely stored location.

By 2012, it is federally mandated that healthcare providers initiate electronic health records. MedExpress is keeping up with the current health information technology. In addition, this promotes “green practices” to lower our paper usage.

Please bear with us, as we are currently in training with this system.

This sign brings up a lot of interesting talking points. The first one that hits me is back about 5 years ago when I heard someone propose (mostly jokingly) the idea of having a “Got EMR?” sign for offices. This isn’t quite the same, but does use some of the same idea of the value of EHR to patients.

I’ll set aside the part of the sign that talks about the government EHR mandate since we’ve talked about it plenty of times before (and how it’s not really a mandate). I’ll also avoid commenting on the “green practices” section of the sign, but it’s amazing how green has infiltrated marketing.

Instead, does anyone else find it amazing that the anticipated slow down for this clinic’s EHR implementation was so big that they typed and printed up a sign explaining the slow down? Maybe it’s just during the time that the doctors are training and not actually a slow down that has to do with actual use of the EHR after training. Although, I know many EHR vendors that are now rolling their eyes when they hear about the EHR training and implementation time and its effect on physician productivity.

I can’t help but wonder which EHR software this clinic is implementing. That would be interesting to know.

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September 22, 2011 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Filed Under: EHR  Electronic Health Record  Electronic Medical Record  EMR  EMR Implementation  HealthCare IT
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If You Had a Healthcare IT Audience…What Would You Say?

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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.

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September 16, 2011 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Filed Under: EHR  Electronic Health Record  Electronic Medical Record  EMR  EMR Selection  EMR Technology  HealthCare IT
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