EHR Optimization – #HITsm Chat Topic

We’re excited to share the topic and questions for this week’s #HITsm chat happening Friday, 6/30 at Noon ET (9 AM PT). This week’s chat will be hosted by Justin Campbell (@tjustincampbell) and Julie Champagne (@JulieEChampagne) from @GalenHealthcare on the topic of “EHR Optimization.”


Healthcare information technology witnessed a wave of implementation, where the promise of efficiency gains and meaningful use incentives drove adoption of Electronic Health Records. As most Healthcare Delivery Organizations (HDOs) now have an EHR in place, it’s becoming clear that the traditional arguments for EHR implementation are insufficient to maximize return on technology investments.  As EHR adoption approaches maximum levels, HDOs are refining EHR strategy from a short-term clinical documentation data repository to a long-term asset with substantial functionality surrounding clinical decision support, health maintenance planning and quality reporting. In fact, according to a recent survey conducted by KPMG, in collaboration with CHIME, 38% of the 112 respondents ranked EMR/EHR optimization as their top choice for where they plan the majority of capital investment over the next three years.

Further, as the capabilities and sophistication of EHRs continue to grow, there is a widening divide between healthcare organizations that harness the capabilities for a competitive advantage and those that are crippled by poor usability, workflows and adoption. Capturing information is only the most basic feature of an EHR. HDOs should ensure the EHR is positioned to be flexible and extensible to adopt emerging technologies driving insight to the point of care. Thus, tremendous opportunity exists for EMR clinically and operationally oriented optimization to generate additional margin, ease the burden on providers, and improve care HDOs must refine their EHR strategy. In this tweetchat, we’ll weigh EHR optimization against replacement, discuss EHR optimization opportunities and barriers, and consider EHR optimization levers, effort, KPIs, and ROI.

Resources and Other EHR Optimization Reading:

  1. EHR Optimization Whitepaper
  2. EHR Optimization Infographic
  3. EHR Clinical Optimization Toolkit
  4. Achieving Clinical System ROI Through EHR Optimization, Replacement & Portfolio Rationalization
  5. Healthcare CIOs Focus On Optimizing EMRs
  6. Has Electronic Health Record Replacement Failed?
  7. EHR Implementation Accomplished – What’s Next?

Please join us for this week’s #HITsm chat focused on EHR Optimization. We’ll use the following 6 questions as the framework for the discussion:

This Week’s Topics
T1: How did the big-bang implementation approaches contribute to EMR inefficiencies and what can be done to mitigate? #HITsm

T2: What is it about current EMR technology that contributes directly to physician inefficiency? #HITsm

T3: How do you get providers engaged in an optimization initiative if they are disenchanted with the product and suffering from burnout? #HITsm

T4: How can clinical workflows be adjusted to improve physician-patient interactions by removing EHR technology and data entry as an obstacle to F2F interaction? #HITsm

T5: What are the most common barriers to EHR optimization and how are they overcome? #HITsm

Bonus: What amount (if any) of ROI should HDOs expect from EHR optimization and is it worth the effort? #HITsm

Upcoming #HITsm Chat Schedule
7/7 – International EHR Adoption: Challenges and Solutions
Hosted by Stefan Buttigieg, MD (@stefanbuttigieg)

7/14 – TBD
Hosted by TBD

7/21 – Meeting the Patient Where They Are
Hosted by Melody Smith Jones (@MelSmithJones) from HYP3R

7/28 – How Does Age Impact Patient Satisfaction & Provider Switching?
Hosted by Lea Chatham (@leachatham) from @SolutionReach

8/4 – TBD
Hosted by Alan Portela (@AlanWPortela) from Airstrip

We look forward to learning from the #HITsm community! As always let us know if you’d like to host a future #HITsm chat or if you know someone you think we should invite to host.

If you’re searching for the latest #HITsm chat, you can always find the latest #HITsm chat and schedule of chats here.

About the author

John Lynn

John Lynn is the Founder of HealthcareScene.com, a network of leading Healthcare IT resources. The flagship blog, Healthcare IT Today, contains over 13,000 articles with over half of the articles written by John. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 20 million times.

John manages Healthcare IT Central, the leading career Health IT job board. He also organizes the first of its kind conference and community focused on healthcare marketing, Healthcare and IT Marketing Conference, and a healthcare IT conference, EXPO.health, focused on practical healthcare IT innovation. John is an advisor to multiple healthcare IT companies. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can be found on Twitter: @techguy.

   

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