Many Healthcare Organizations Remain Paper-Based Despite Having EHR
April 5, 2012
As healthcare organizations continue to move towards making the investment in EHR technology, a survey by Anoto reveals that many organizations have not decreased their reliance on paper-based processes.
Highlights of the Anoto survey can be found here: Despite EHRs, healthcare still ‘buried in paperwork,’ says survey
At Environmental Intelligence, we know that this should not be the outcome of a successful EHR implementation. As part of our end-to-end EHR Rollout Process, we gain a complete understanding of the medical organization existing physician workflows and processes first in order to recommend the right EHR system. This is a vital step of the comprehensive approach we take with our clients since we are a Complete Health IT Solutions partner. The substantial Health IT experience and expertise of our team gives us the ability to deploy the necessary technology, beyond the EHR system, that streamlines workflows and maximizes operational efficiencies of the healthcare organizations that we serve.
The article link above mentions that over fifty percent of the survey respondents said the reasons why their healthcare organization continues to rely heavily on paper-based processes are:
1) “Paper is still too embedded in the culture” – This is the posture that speaks to the human nature of being reluctant to change. It is extremely difficult for most to embrace change, especially the type of major system change like an EHR. But if change is required, it is more efficient and effective for all involved to go through the paradigm shift exercise and the process of change all at one time if at all possible. Medical organizations that make the capital investment in an EHR system and do not take full advantage of the implementation process to identify all the different ways to improve operational efficiencies are missing a great opportunity.
2) “Technology adoption is too expensive.” – It is true that health technology is not cheap but true to any business including healthcare, it takes money to make money. In the not too distant future, medical organizations may realize reduced revenues and potential financial penalties by not implementing certain health technologies. However, there is plenty of opportunity for medical organizations to realize ROI from Health IT investments if they choose a Health IT Services vendor that understands how to accomplish this. A unique aspect to the business of medicine is strategic investment in technology, like EHR’s, can bring simultaneous benefit to all stakeholders including the organization, physicians, staff, and most importantly patients. Not to mention the survey reveals that almost ninety percent of the respondents with an active electronic health records system said EHR’s improve patient care.
3) “Switching to an electronic system requires too much training and disrupts care delivery.” – Bottom line, there is no such thing as too much training, especially in healthcare. And when it comes to EHR implementation, the training requirements, training schedule, and impact to operations and workflows should be key items included in a sound implementation plan. For the most part, medical organizations that have unfortunately experienced a painful or unsuccessful EHR implementation did so due to either poor planning, poor execution of the plan, cutting training short, or a combination there of.
Environmental Intelligence has a proven track record of helping medical organizations successfully implement a variety of Health IT systems focused on improving operational efficiencies and workflows.
Our mission is simple – To be a trusted partner delivering complete Physician Focused – Patient Driven Health IT solutions that improves patients care and outcomes while helping our clients realize ROI on their IT spend.
Frank J. Rosello
is CEO & Co-Founder of Environmental Intelligence LLC.
Environmental Intelligence, LLC, is a complete, full-service healthcare IT solution provider. With a team having more than 10 years of proven clinical expertise in delivering end-to-end health IT solutions, Environmental Intelligence provides medical practices and facilities onsite expert IT consulting, installation, and implementation that is focused on physicians, their patients, and the quality of their care.
Contact us to learn more about our Physician Focused – Patient Driven® approach to Health IT.
