Physician Input Vital To Successful EMR Implementation
By Katie Wike, contributing writer
Growing dissatisfaction with EMRs leads to realization that physicians need to be included in development and selection
Numerous reports - such as this from Health IT Outcomes - note physicians are growing increasingly frustrated with electronic medical records (EMRs). More and more physicians are accepting them as a concept, but they find the implementation and functionality less than desirable. Among the problems cited are “poor integration, workflow design, and minimal query capabilities.” To combat these issues, it is suggested that developers “focus on usability from the clinician’s perspective, particularly physicians.”
Forbes agrees, writing, “Doctors resent the hours they have to spend to learn a system that interferes with the way they practice. Many electronic health records originated as practice management software, with billing as the central purpose.” Adding to physician’s frustrations is a Baylor Health Care System study that found it takes an average 134 hours for a doctor to prepare for an electronic health record.
Forbes writes, “An implementation guide book advises primary care physicians to reduce their patient appointments by half the first week. (It also recommends pizza, donuts, coffee, and a shoulder to cry on).”
Now, it appears that physician-friendly EMRs are coming. MedCity News notes the brother and sister team of Kyna and Conan Fong have designed “what they call the ‘clinical first approach’ to the electronic medical record,” one created specifically with physician input.
The siblings, relying on their previous experience in healthcare - Kyna taught game theory in healthcare at Stanford University, Conan worked with practices as a health IT consultant - worked with their father, a solo family physician in Walnut Creek, CA, on their design. According to MedCity News, this partnership led to the creation of ElationEMR, a product the Fongs say “requires no decrease in patient load and is intuitive enough to use in as little as an hour after it’s fully installed.”
According to GIGaom, the Fong’s product is unique because, while most programs are centered on billing and use, theirs was designed to follow a doctor’s train of thought rather than a financial path. Kyna Fong explains that ElationEMR “allows a physician to see many different pieces of information at once – from problems to active medications to notes from their last visit and lab reports – all in one screen.”
Involvement in design is just one way physicians are making EMR implementation smoother, another is taking a lead role in the selection of one. EHRIntelligence reports, “Led by clinicians, (The Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital (LHCH) and Robinson Memorial Hospital’s) integrated ECM/EMR solution went live on-time and on-budget. New patient files are created in the EMR and are completely paperless.”
EHRIntelligence quotes Dr. Johan Waktare, consultant cardiologist and clinical lead for EMR at LHCH, as saying, “The fact that the project has been so clinically led is really important to its success. The integration allows us to flexibly manage a range of disparate clinical information in a manner that is tightly integrated with our existing systems, helping us move towards fully electronic workflows and HIMSS Stage 7.”