EHR Optimization: Enhancing Efficiency, Workflows, and Patient Care

Optimizing your electronic health records involves taking a granular look at the system workflows and finding opportunities to improve the application’s usage. At a high level, effective EMR optimization makes the system more efficient and cost-effective while streamlining end-user navigation and data retrieval. The end result helps your healthcare organization to provide better patient outcomes. Ease of use also helps to prevent physician burnout.

In addition, data can be accessed more easily and securely across multiple locations and providers on a single platform. This streamlines collaborative efforts when treating a patient and reduces the potential for medical errors. This enhances healthcare organizations’ ability to protect patient safety. Plus, having the ability to get a fully up-to-date and complete medical history allows doctors to be aware of a patient’s allergies and helps them to avoid prescribing a medication that would interact negatively with ones already being taken.

Ease of report generation allows healthcare organizations to more easily stay in compliance. Trends can arise from other reports that can help with research and quality improvement. From a financial perspective, well-optimized EHR systems are likely to have more rapid returns on investment for your healthcare organization.

EMR optimization can help to maximize the seamless use of patient portals—thereby boosting the quality of doctor-patient communications. Plus, tools embedded in the systems can contribute towards preventative care, which is key to managing physical and mental health conditions. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) in their report, “An Interactive Preventive Care Record,” prevention techniques—such as immunizations, preventive medications, and counseling—are highly effective in maintaining patients’ overall health, extending their lives and improving its quality. When this reveals treatable or reversible conditions, mortality from major chronic diseases can be lowered by 15 to 30 percent.

Americans, however, suffer from a “prevention gap.” Barriers, such as lack of knowledge, limited motivation, and logistical issues, have helped to play a role in this fact: Americans only receive about half of recommended care. Well-crafted EHRs, though, can inform, educate, and remind people of recommended preventive care while also offering guidance when information is inconsistent and directing people where to get additional relevant resources.

Also, because members of healthcare teams can all see the same, real-time health information, including a patient’s history, they can better diagnose, prescribe, and otherwise manage patients’ overall health.

EMR optimization streamlines end users’ usage, giving them the ability to efficiently navigate patient information efficiently—which helps to reduce frustration and the burnout that often follows. As clinicians have ready access to precisely the information they need, they can have a higher positive impact on patient health outcomes. Plus, EHR systems can help to prevent information overload by reducing the presence of information that medical teams don’t need.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), in their journal article, “Electronic Health Records, Communication, and Data Sharing: Challenges and Opportunities For Improving the Diagnostic Process,” cites numerous studies that reveal the challenges associated with data overload and fragmented information delivery. Some solutions are as follows:

• Batch messaging related to routine care to avoid email/messaging glut.
• Prioritize critical pages, allowing physicians to read routine ones later.
• Restructure EHRs to support decision-making and diagnoses.
• Integrate patient data, such as test results, labs, notes, and images, to more easily see the full picture; display this information in more clinically relevant ways.
• Review auto-populated data and consider if alerts or notifications would help to avoid information bloat.
• Physicians could then self-select what to review and when. Streamline ordering and collecting processes and expedite results for labs and tests.
• Use wheels! Put laptops, computers, tablets, phones, and other technologies used to access EHR data on wheels for morning rounds.
• Ensure physician training is complete and up to date to streamline usage.

Each healthcare organization has its own processes, and it takes professional analysis to determine how to create EHR workflows to seamlessly match those processes for the most efficient use. Although it’s tempting to make changes on the go to solve immediate challenges, effective EHR workflows are created through careful planning and input from all relevant stakeholders. Gather information about what works especially well and where inefficiencies exist. According to HealthIT.gov, workflow process mapping is key to clarifying processes and identifying bottlenecks, serving as blueprints for the future. Because this will be a multidisciplinary process, thoughtfully identify the stakeholders for a comprehensive map. Who participates in what activities? Who will benefit from each of the improved processes directly or indirectly? Determine the tasks, who is involved, the steps needed to complete the tasks, and the desired outcomes. HealthIT.gov suggests a team of five to eight people to create the mapping, which may include patients; someone who is not responsible for the processes being discussed should facilitate with management providing resources and support.

Once new, optimized EHR workflows are put into place, all types of end users must be appropriately trained. In-house teams may not have enough time, given their current duties, and may not have the specialties required.

EMR optimization best practices include:

• Carefully choosing who has access to particular pieces of data
  • Availability of patient information should be securely managed at each level of usage
• Make sure all levels of usage are as streamlined as possible
• Automate, whenever possible, to help prevent human error and otherwise limit risk.

Experts should capture relevant process documentation for manuals with engaging, interactive training programs designed for each end user type in your healthcare organization. Gather feedback, post-training, and answer all user questions. When the application goes live, post-EMR optimization, ensure expert support. You may decide to offer super user training, in-house IT professionals can offer this support, or hire qualified EHR professionals. Also, make sure you educate patients on changes in portals.