Innovation Is Key In 2012 Health IT Planning

By Ken Congdon, editor in chief, Health IT Outcomes

As we embark on a new year, healthcare providers will inevitably be bombarded with 2012 industry forecasts from a variety of analysts and media outlets. Health IT Outcomes, for example, is currently in the process of putting the finishing touches on its February special print edition titled The Top 10 Health IT Trends For 2012, which will be distributed at HIMSS this year. We surveyed the 70,000 healthcare provider executives, IT professionals, and clinical leaders that subscribe to our website and e-newsletter to determine the top health IT trends for the issue. Initial evaluation of this data proved one thing — while 2011 was a busy year in terms of IT investment and implementation, there still is a huge amount of uncertainty that exists around how to best leverage IT in the healthcare arena.

For example, while Meaningful Use provides a framework for EHR implementation, it really only provides healthcare facilities with a list of outcomes they need to achieve and not necessarily a road map for how to get there. Many healthcare providers had a difficult time getting there in 2011, which has prompted HHS (The Department of Health and Human Services) to delay its Stage 2 Meaningful Use requirements until 2014. Healthcare reform, particularly the accountable care aspects of reform, has generated a whole other set of questions. Healthcare providers are just trying to figure out where they fit in the whole ACO (accountable care organization) picture, and determining the partners they need to forge stronger working relationships with. Providers realize healthcare IT will be instrumental in enabling and streamlining ACOs, but it’s still not clear what technologies will have the biggest impact or how to best integrate the disparate health IT assets of each faction of an ACO.

While some answers will emerge in 2012, health IT uncertainty will undoubtedly continue to be a key issue in the new year. Healthcare providers will need to make difficult decisions and be innovative in the way they apply IT in order to position themselves successfully now and into the future.

I personally seek out hospitals, group practices, and other providers that are leveraging technology in innovative and effective ways to highlight every week in Health IT Outcomes’s email newsletter. I never anticipated finding the subject for my latest story in my own backyard. In late 2011, I was referred to a local ENT specialty practice in Erie, PA for some chronic sinus issues I was experiencing. Upon my initial visit, I was blown away by the way the physicians at this practice leveraged EHR technology. They didn’t come into the exam room with a laptop, or even a paper chart. They did no data entry, writing, or dictation throughout the course of the exam. All they did was talk, and my electronic chart was automatically displayed on a high-definition monitor in the exam room, and magically completed as the doctor concluded my checkup. When I asked my doctor how the heck he did that, he provided me with some insight into the remote scribe-assisted EHR solution his practice has developed. The solution, which is outlined in detail in this week’s featured article, Remote Scribes Put The ROI In EHRs, removes the EHR data entry burden from the physicians and place it on scribes stationed in a dedicated office space remotely located from the exam room and physicians. The ENT practice has been able to increase patient volumes and revenue as a result of the solution, and it’s just the type of innovation other hospitals and practices should be striving for their own technology initiatives in 2012.