EMR/EHR: Meeting the Real World

Arguably, one of the impediments to EHR (Electronic Health Recorded) adoption lies in its hard to pinpoint ROI (Return On Investment). Numbers vary widely across solutions and healthcare organizations.

One doctor may welcome EHRs are a godsend while another views them as a crippling impediment, and a whole host of factors will rest behind such opinions. Training can be a tremendous influencer here, which is one reason why selecting a solution backed by a determined vendor partner can make a world of difference.

Some EHR benefits can be measured, as with improved procedure coding and billing processes. More accurate billing translates into faster patient payments and improved cash flow. However, benefits such as real-time record updating, geographically independent record availability, improved patient handling efficiency, higher patient satisfaction, and similar improvements are much harder to quantify. They resist being factored into ROI equations, but this is where much of EHR’s return will be found.

Implementation

“Once you decide that you want to make this EHR transition, there are a couple of important things,” advises Dell’s Litt. “The most important one is to say, ‘I’m going to use this as an opportunity to transform my organization.’ In other words, any organization, even if it’s the best-run place in the world, can always improve in some way. There are always broken processes. One should use the transformation from paper records to electronic systems to attack those broken processes. We call that clinical transformation. How do we provide care and make things run better?”

We already mentioned the importance of having aggressive support from the EHR vendor, especially for training. Keep in mind that different vendors will have different focus areas. Some may be more hospital-oriented; others will be optimized for outpatient facilities. Some EHR systems are more complex and may require additionalIT support. There are no “right answers” or cookie cutter solutions. Healthcare organizations must weigh the pros and cons of each provider and its EHR offerings.

Internally, be sure to have buy-in and positive attitude from every member of the healthcare team. That means everyone from nurses and doctors to clerks on the hospital floor to the people in finance. Because EHRs benefit the entire organization, any group that resists the change will impact everyone.

The best way to reduce the risk of such adoption blocks is through top-down leadership. Executives should be enthusiastic in their EHR support and work with consultants to formulate the most effective implementation strategy possible.