As hospitals and other medical entities convert to EHRs, other operational changes will have to be made to insure the success of the EHR implementation. According to Margaret Amatayakul, a health information specialist, these changes will involve the way clinicians, and others, approach medical records and how they are used.
Advantages of EHR
One area where hospital adjustments will have to be made is workflow, Amatayakul says.
An example of this is the processing of lab results. The way these results are processed using a paper-based operation is different from the way they are processed using EHRs. So, by understanding this difference, organizations will be able to develop new workflows for clinicians who are involved in this process.
However, another area that needs to be considered is the difference that EHRs will bring to the way clinicians use the lab results for diagnostic or therapeutic decisions. An example of this occurs when a medication is contraindicated for a patient. The clinician may have made the medication order without consulting lab results or there may not be any lab tests. This will usually lead to a call from the pharmacist to recommend another drug. An EHR can include an alert system notifying the clinician when a drug is contraindicated. But these kinds of alerts are not as common as other types (for example, drug-drug, and drug allergy alerts) because lab results are not given in a structured format. Even if the alerts were provided, many clinicians are annoyed by them. So, here it would be helpful to show the clinicians how these alerts are generated in an EHR, so that they can have faith that the alerts are meaningful and should be taken seriously.
Workflow Changes
In addition to workflow, clinicians and others will have to change their thought flow patterns to adapt to EHRs, according to Amatayakul. An example of this is when the clinician is facing a situation where a certain medication does not appear to be working. Choosing the best medication to use is generally done on a hit-or-miss basis. But with an EHR, the technology can be used to determine the most appropriate medication to use, given the patient’s condition and the qualities of the original drug. Having this at his or her disposal would be a big help in aiding the “thought flow” of the clinician.
These examples show that implementing an EHR system involves more than just the technology itself, but the way in which that technology will influence workflow and thought flow, Amatayakul says. The medical organization will need to incorporate these issues in training programs during the implementation of the system as well. Doing this will greatly increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the technology because it will more closely reflect the needs of the physicians.
We don’t have to tell you how difficult it is to implement EHR and then manage it. When you need to hire skilled and experienced EHR IT consultants, whether their skill lies in assessments, implementation, upgrades, management, or consulting, contact a recruiter at Morgan Hunter Healthcare!