This week let’s examine looking at the EHR and making the data usable and easily computable.
Usable and Easily Computable Data Makes Good Health Care Sense
The Military Health System, in partnership with the Department of Veterans Affairs, has examined the need for computable and transferrable health data for years. To my knowledge, since 2001, the MHS and VA have been sharing more data than any two health care organizations in the world. We share data on millions of patients and millions of encounters or visits and yet, we are still not at an ending point for sharing computable data. First, let me point out, computable data is that which can be manipulated, imported, changed or used in different systems. From a physician’s perspective, not all data needs to be computable to be useful, but some information, like allergy and pharmacy data, are really important.
Getting this usable and easily computable data into patients’ medical records is one of the many reasons I believe our nation is embarking upon a journey toward EHR adoption. Aside from the need to share data, getting the data uploaded is also of utmost importance. Multiple methods are within current EHR solutions to assist with inputting clinical health care data. These include dropdown menus, templates, auto fillers and macros. The use of transcription services or a scribe may best support many practices of current work flows. Speech recognition technology is also an efficient way for many physicians to document health care.
Finding solutions that easily merge computable data into patient records also supports the norms of the medical profession. Supporting the work flow remains the key component for all EHRs no matter who in the medical profession is adopting them, while getting staff buy-in early is just being a good manager of change. Next week, I want to explore the lessons learned from staff taking ownership of the change.
Week 7: Do Not Constrain Your Medical Providers With Wires
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