Are EHRs Truly Improving the Quality of Healthcare? A Closer Look.

During the past five years Electronic Health Records have matured despite the regulations of CMS and HHS.  The additional requirements of Meaningful Use have added cost and bureaucracy to the process of gathering data from disparate sources.  The current EHR does not support MU completely and practices must gather required data by other means.

Physicians had the fantasy of EHR providing them with a usable source and record of patient clinical information.

During the initial period 2006-2014 there was resistance to EHR by providers due to the cost of acquisition and maintenance.  The HITECH act was implemented to offset these concerns and the adoption process proceeded.  In retrospect it was a hurried decision, fueled by a fear of exclusion by non EHR users.  Vendors capitalized and profited due to the inflationary addition of 20 billion dollars into HIT.


Adding Value to the  EHR

In a very recent survey discussed in this video almost 80% were concerned or very concerned about the return of investment for their EHR system.

After watching the above video, which pertains to Texas Children's Hospital Dr. Maacias provides some positive aspects of analytics

Known for leading large-scale healthcare improvement using data and analytics to drive positive change, Dr. Charles Macias speaks to creating greater value in the EMR through analytics. This approach has done more to increase value than many other cost-reduction efforts. In this webinar you will:
Explore each component of the value equation, Learn how TCH has increased the value of its healthcare using data to drive quality an ever more important need of those facing capitated or value–based care reimbursements and Consider a new ROI equation for systems who have invested heavily in their EMRs

Why an EMR Is Only a Partial Solution

Sometimes used interchangeably with EHR, an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) is a digital version of paper charts. Will an EMR alone solve your meaningful use, ACO and healthcare internal and external reporting needs? The answer is likely to be no for three reasons:

1.      Meaningful information requires near-real time data to monitor, diagnose and treat the root causes before you report.

EMR reports are typically provided weekly or monthly; they are static and one-dimensional, like the sample above.

What happens if you want to drill into the data and view trends related to a measure, say for example, an ED measure, where you might want to look at differences in the day of the week or time, differences by providers, etc.?  You could request another EMR report be built.  However, if you’re like many clients, your request would be in the EMR report queue for 120 days or more.  Then you would end up with multiple reports that you’re trying to cobble together to make sense of the data.

You may also want to look at data from other source systems such as operations, patient satisfaction and finance to analyze ED throughput and disposition of departure related to staffing ratio, department census/capacity, inpatient length of stay (LOS) and the impact on patient satisfaction. 

Are EHRs Truly Improving the Quality of Healthcare? A Closer Look.: Wondering if your EHR is truly improving the quality of your health care? Dr. Macias takes a closer look and shares what Texas Children’s Hospital…