STORIES & SOLUTIONS FOR THE MODERN BUSINESS USER

Someone much more intelligent than me once said that too much of a good thing may be a bad thing. Or could be a bad thing. Or something like that. You get the idea.

In recognition of National Health IT week, here’s my take on significant trends and amazing progressive events of the past five years (in no particular order):

National Health IT Week (October 2-6, 2017) is designed to bring the health IT community together to raise awareness of the benefits of information technology. From the billing office to the doctor’s office, we’ve seen some amazing advancements over the last decade, ranging from the rise of the electronic health record (EHR) to portal technology, big data, and cloud ERP. We join healthcare professionals in celebrating the value of health IT with a few innovative trends worthy of recognition:

What I hear often when visiting physicians who are using the problem list in an electronic health record (EHR) is “it doesn’t give me any information.” When I ask why, is it empty? They say, “No, there are a hundred things on it. It’s filled with lots of stuff.” The problem is that you really don’t have an accurate snapshot of a patient when people are just throwing problems on the problem list.

Physicians have to start de-duplicating and doing work on the problem list because it’s not accurate, tight, up-to-date and reflective of the patient’s acuity and status today. And so, they get uninvolved with the problem list and the issues get increasingly worse.

Last week we examined the five areas leakage occurs between EHR and ERP. As you consider if ERP-EHR integration is worth doing, let’s evaluate it under these conditions:

In part one of this two-part series we'll look at the five silent areas of revenue leakage and why they occur. In next week's post we'll share insight on what to do about them.

The quote “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication,” originally from Leonardo da Vinci and the headline of one of Apple’s first marketing brochures in 1977, underscores the design philosophy that led to much of Apple’s success. Unfortunately, modern electronic health record (EHR) documentation workflows are far from simple. Regulatory, legal, reporting, payor, and other documentation requirements have shifted the focus of clinical workflows from patient care to data entry. These requirements result in suboptimal Frankenstein-like EHRs and uncertainty about how to make things better.

I was recently sitting in a business meeting with some of my company’s leadership, discussing our financial performance and our future. I heard things like:

Just over a decade ago, doctors in the U.S. updated patient files by hand and stored them in color-coded files. Thankfully, technology enhancements have made way for more effective and accurate alternatives. EHR adoption grew to nearly 96 percent, mainly due to government EHR incentive programs.

Going to the hospital is not like going to the supermarket, but it should be. Follow along: