So far, we’ve explored workflow, training, the importance of having the right hardware and the power of the web. Next, I want to turn your attention back to something dealing with, what else... workflow again. The way physicians and medical practitioners have historically charted their patients is through a paper based system. We have traditionally relied on our handwritten notes to keep track of what was going on with our patients. Today’s innovations allow us to continue, in a more legible way, to have a portable chart to use in our patient care.

Do Not Constrain Your Medical Providers With Wires

The most prevalent method of charting in this country today is still a ‘pen and paper’ system that does not have a cord connecting it to the wall, and neither should an EHR. To best support work flow, wireless tablets, notebooks and carts are used to help make documentation throughout the military treatment facility or hospital setting more integrated, quicker and easier. Within the Military Health System, this was another of those lessons we learned the hard way. Granted, some of the medical providers from my generation and beyond may find it hard to adapt to not writing things out, but in the end, it is about safety and ensuring the best knowledge possible is in the hands of those who need it when they need it.

From a military perspective, we learned from the battlefield that portable works. Imagine, if you will, a medic or corpsman trying to care for an injured warrior at or near the point of injury. The warrior is given something for pain and moved on to the next location. If the EHR were not portable, the first responder can’t possibly document care anywhere near the time close to the point of injury. Now that is not to say someone is going to be using an EHR while bullets are flying, but at the first safe opportunity, it is possible to upload information that could very well save the life of a warrior if the EHR is portable. The wires have to be cut to be effective in many other military settings as well, but in the private sector, I would be more willing to use a system that didn’t constrict me to plugging into a wall.

To sum up this concept, using portable technology to increase the ease of incorporating EHRs into the standard medical practices increases the chances of buy-in by the users and interaction with the patients. Using the best solutions to make the medical providers content with an EHR improves the continuity of care for patients because more information is in the hands of those who need it, when they need it.

Getting the information is great but getting usable and easily computable data is even better. In the blog to follow, the topic will turn toward computable data.

Week 6: Web Hosted Solutions Make Sense for Speed and Redundancy

Week 5: The See One, Do One, Teach One Training Philosophy

Week 4: EHRs Should Be Intuitive

Week 3: Hardware Matters

Week 2: Test Drive Before You Buy

Week 1: Choosing the Right EHR