I always love the creativity that comes out of the good people at HL7 Standards. In the latest example, I reference a post by Jon Mertz called Giving Thanks for Health Information Technology. In the post, he digs into the idea that gratitude is a mindset and suggests that we could use a little more gratitude in healthcare IT.
I love the concept and power of gratitude and appreciate Jon’s comments about the need for more gratitude in healthcare IT. While I try to avoid this, it’s often easier to report on the train wrecks than it is to report on the benefits. Plus, train wrecks drive readership.
Following Jon’s call for us to express more gratitude for the good things happening in healthcare IT, I thought I’d create my list of thanks. Hopefully you’ll join in with your list in the comments, on your blog, or on twitter (see the hashtag #HITThanks).
- I’m grateful I don’t have to search for lost paper charts.
- I’m thankful I don’t have coffee stained paper charts.
- I appreciate that multiple people can add to the chart at the same time (at least in most EHR systems).
- I’m glad I don’t see stacks of paper charts on my desk.
- I appreciate being able to read whatever my doctor documents in my chart.
- I’m thankful for the nurses who do a bang up job with EHR software that’s almost always developed with them as an afterthought.
- I’m grateful we no longer have to remember that Aq comes after Am and that the person who filed the chart might have been moving quickly and filed Am after Aq.
- I appreciate all the thousands of thoughtful, caring, and wonderful people that work day in and day out to provide amazing care.
- I’m thankful a nobody in Las Vegas can start a blog and give back to the healthcare IT community in some way.
I’m sure I could list many more. I hope you’ll join in.
I’m thankful for those practices and providers who understand how lives can be saved, health improved, and waste reduced by the effective use of EHR and HIE.
John
Appropriately enough, you are thankful for the document repository function of the EHR. This is what the EHR vendors know how to do and is useful.
I notice that you are not thankful for anything having to do with meaningful use. I completely agree. Meaningful use is giving document repository vendors the responsibility of designing specialty workflow products, something they ar ill equipped for. Kinda like asking a heavy construction company to design fine jewelry.
I am would be thankful for:
Continued use of EHRs as document repositories
Moving to a modular EHR where specialty specific modules could deal with workflow and decision support efforts sorely needed and far beyond the capabilities of EHR vendors
Less government intervention (Central planning of a highly innovative area like software development does not work. Ask the Soviet Union)
Kevin,
Very interesting observation. No doubt I took the low hanging fruit. I guess the last one is partially a thank you for meaningful use, but not in the way you describe it.
Great post as always, John!
I’m thankful for the endless possibilities and solutions technology holds. It’s awesome to work in a field where there absolutely are no limits to what can be done.
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