Digitized Medicine

Twitter Chats and Physicians (#eRx630)

Today I (as @drmattmurray) and @TexMed moderated our first Twitter Chat that focused on the topic of e-prescribing. To participate in a Twitter Chat a physician must have a Twitter account and must know the date, time and Twitter hashtag for the Twitter Chat.  In our case the hashtag-- #eRx630--refers to e-prescribing and the date, June 30th, by which time physicians must meet the CMS requirements regarding the use e-prescribing. Physicians who fail to use a qualified e-prescribing system or certified EHR to enter at least 10 e-prescriptions during eligible Medicare encounters will incur a 1% penalty on 2012 Medicare claims.    On the other hand, those who meet this requirement are eligible for a 1% bonus. 

Despite the high importance of this subject matter, there were not any other physicians participating on this particular Twitter Chat.   At least none that we heard from.   It was lonely.  

However, we considered this to be an experiment and a chance to experience what it is like to actually moderate a Twitter Chat.    Without a lot of participating "chit-chat", it was difficult to coordinate questions and answers with my friends @TexMed and @TexMedHIT.     We basically asked each other questions or even asked ourselves for our own answers.  I think we did get out some excellent information, but this would have been more valuable with some active back-and-forth dialogue.   Again, though, the purpose of this venture was to dip our toes in the water to see how this type of format could be used in the future. 

Twitter Chat among physicians will certainly have challenges, but I think it will find it's place as a useful mode of communication for specific purposes and in certain situations.  The format will need to be refined, and this means we will have to try it (like today!), experiment with it, refine it and keep doing that PDSA thing to it (Plan-Do-Study-Act).   Eventually it will find a place where it serves as an effective way to communicate some things.     I already have found Twitter useful at large medical conferences that use a hashtag to communicate real-time information.    It is a matter of finding the right niches. 

One of the useful aspects of a Twitter Chat is that a transcript can be created of the entire conversation.  This means that you don't have to be "online" and engaged in the Twitter stream for the entire duration of the chat.   Since most physicians are hard pressed to find an un-interrupted hour, they would find it very helpful to be able to access and peruse the transcript at their leisure.

Here is a transcript of today's Twitter Chat #eRx630:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Help Available For Small Physician Practices to Overcome Technology Challenges

American Medical Association (AMA) President, Cecil B. Wilson, M.D., said in an AMA Commentary this week, "Physicians should take the time to explore their practice needs, assess their practice's readiness to adopt health IT and select the right system for the practice --and its patients".    This is wise advice that I wholeheartedly agree with.

I also agree that the successful adoption and meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs) impose many new challenges onto physician practices and that overcoming these barriers is especially difficult for physicians in small practices or solo practices that are constrained by limited resources.   My only disappointment with Dr. Wilson's message to physicians is that it failed to highlight how Regional Extension Centers (RECs) can be leveraged by physicians to address these issues with EHR adoption and use.

The HITECH portion of the 2009 Reinvestment Act (ARRA) included over $677 million in grant funds to establish RECs across the nation to cover every geographic region.   The purpose of each REC is to provide consulting services to physicians that help them overcome many of the described barriers to the adoption and use of EHRs.   It is important for physicians to know that the RECs receive federal subsidies specifically based on and proportionate to the number of primary care physicians in solo or small group practices (<10 physicians) that they successfully help adopt, implement and meaningfully use an EHR.  In other words, RECs are financially dependent on providing effective health IT consulting services to a segment of physicians who have the greatest need for such services.

In Texas there are four RECs including the North Texas REC (NTREC) for which I volunteer time as Board Chairman.    Other Texas physicians volunteer their time to comprise 50% of the governing boards for each of the four RECs.   Our goal is to ensure that our RECs are physician-friendly and remained focused on providing high quality services that meet the technology needs of small physician practices in each region.   Texas RECs collaborated with each other to create a common business plan that leverages the federal subsidies to charge Texas physicians a token fee of $300 for IT consulting services worth over $5,000.    

NTREC will receive 100% of their allotted subsidies if we successfully help 1,500 physicians adopt EHRs and achieve meaningful use.   Since last October more than 500 North Texas physicians have enrolled for NTREC services; over half of them have already successfully implemented an EHR and are now working on the achieving meaningful use of their investment.

My hope is that physicians in other states will emulate our efforts by actively engaging in the governance of their region's RECs to ensure that they are physician-centric and remain focused on addressing the unmet needs of the small physician practices.

 

Comparison of Web-based vs. Traditional EHRs For Physician Offices

An ambulatory electronic health record (EHR) can be provided to the physician practice through one of two different models:    

1. Web-based-- also referred to as a "hosted EHR" or the "ASP Model" where the physician accesses the EHR through an Internet connection
2. Client-Server (C/S)--  the traditional model where the EHR server may physically resides in the  physician's office

Both models are considered to be acceptable, but each has inherent pros and cons to consider.   The traditional model of choice has been the “client-server” model.   In this model the EMR software is installed on a server that is typically located in the physician’s office.  The physician and staff access the EMR through computer devices that are connected to the server through a local area network (LAN) set up in the office.  The computers may be connected wirelessly to the network if desired.   This model has a few similarities to loading Quicken on your home computer and then using Quicken to pay bills online: 

1. After loading Quicken onto your computer you will periodically be advised by Quicken to take "updates" to fix known "bugs" in the software.  Similarly, you will load the EHR software onto the server in your office and physically download any updates to fix "bugs" that the vendor discovers and fixes.     
2. Microsoft periodically advises you to take security updates on your home computer.  Similarly, the EHR server will need to take periodic updates from Microsoft.
3. You may later decide to upgrade Quicken to its latest version, and then purchase and install the Quicken upgrade on your computer.  Similarly, you will want to upgrade your EHR software periodically, usually every 12-18 months.
4. You may decide in the future to purchase a new home computer that is faster;  you will have to then load the Quicken software onto that new computer and transfer all of your old Quicken data to the new computer.  Similarly, you will need to periodically replace the EHR server with a newer one that is faster, stronger and/or meets future recommended requirements of the EHR software.  And make sure your data gets transferred as well.

The web-based model is gaining popularity.  In this model the EHR software is located on a server at a remote location designated and hosted by the EHR vendor.  The physician and staff access the EHR through the Internet on computer devices in the office.  This is analogous to online banking that you access on your home computer and use to pay your bills online (instead of using Quicken).  Using this analogy: 

1.  You will not physically have to take updates because the bank will update the software themselves
2.  Microsoft will not ask you to take Microsoft security updates to the online banking server because the bank hosts the server and will do that themselves
3. When there is an upgrade to the online banking software, you do not have to purchase and physically load that software on your computer because the bank does that on their server that you are simply accessing.
4. If the online banking server is too slow you will not have to purchase a new server, the bank will do that (if enough customers complain)...and they will migrate your data over to that new server)

Here is a comparison chart for these two EHR models:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Personally, the business side of me is strongly averse to allowing a 3^rd party vendor to take care of the “heart and soul” of my practice (i.e. the revenue dollars and the clinical data).   Hence, in private practice I would strongly favor keeping the server in-house.     However, the clinic I currently work at is a small part of a large academic institution.   For our ambulatory EMR I am leaning toward recommending a web-based model.  The presence of an institutional IT Department whose primary purpose is to support the education of thousands of students, not to understand and dedicate the resources needed to provide a high level of clinical IT support required for a clinician using an EHR.  And I know who is most likely to get trumped down the road when conflicting priorities arise!

Why should primary care physicians enroll for Regional Extension Center services?

Why should primary care physicians sign up for REC services?   What are the unique selling points and assistance they will receive as compared to other consultant organizations?  

These are excellent questions I am hearing from physicians in Texas regarding the four RECs that cover our entire state.  The RECs are subsidized by the federal government through the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act which appropriated $640 million in REC grant funds to create 62 RECs across the nation, including the four in Texas. 

Primary care physicians in Texas should use REC services because they will receive a steep discount for high quality services that are provided through a trustworthy, physician-centric organization that was specifically created to meet the technological needs of physicians in their region.

In Texas the four RECs have collaborated to develop a shared business plan that leverages the federal subsidies to provide onsite technical consulting for a token fee of $300.    For this $300 enrollment fee Texas physicians receive over $5,000 in consulting services which include:

• EHR implementation and project management;
• HIT education and training; 
• Vendor selection and financial consultation; 
• Practice and workflow redesign; 
• Privacy and security compliance education; 
• Meaningful use analysis, tracking, and monitoring; 
• Assistance in meeting meaningful use requirements for CMS incentives; 
• Collaboration with state and national health information exchange (HIE); 
• Ongoing technical assistance; and 
• Opportunities for CME credit hours

In addition to this steeply discounted enrollment fee, the Texas Medical Association (TMA) works closely with the RECs to help ensure that the RECs are physician-centric and focused on meeting physician needs.    Physicians hold 50% of the seats on each REC's governing board as a result of the TMA’s early efforts.

Another unique selling point is that the REC technical consultants are specifically focused on, and experienced with, the small physician practice.    Other IT consultants naturally give priority to large practices or healthcare systems where they get large amounts of money from a small number of contracts.    The REC consultants, on the other hand, only get a small amount of money per contract, but they get a large number of them.    This business strategy allows them to become more experienced with and more focused on the small practice.    The REC administrative staffs enable this strategy by facilitating the enrollment of a large number of physicians and by using the REC federal grant funds to offer physicians the steep discount.

The four RECs in Texas are:

• Gulf Coast Regional Extension Center (GCREC)
• CentrEast Regional Extension Center (CEREC)
• North Texas Regional Extension Center (NTREC)
• Texas Tech University Health Science Center

North Texas Regional Extension Center's Successful Start and Current Activities

Today, while wearing my hat as the Board Chairman of the North Texas Regional Extension Center, I am writing a message primarily to my colleagues who practice medicine across North Texas.   I am sharing this message through my blog, however,  because others may be interested to see and hear what is happening at the grassroots level of local and regional health IT initiatives:

 

  
 February 2, 2011

To my physician colleagues across North Texas,

On behalf of the volunteer physician board members of the North Texas Regional Extension Center (NTREC), I am writing to inform you that registration for the federal electronic health record (EHR) incentive program has begun and that the money is already flowing.   In January, for example, two Oklahoma physicians at the Gastorf Family Clinic of Durant, OK, received $21,250 each for having implemented a certified EHR.   If you are considering making the jump to an EHR, or if you already use one, you may become eligible for EHR incentives up to $44,000 under Medicare or $63,750 under Medicaid by meeting “meaningful use” requirements.

NTREC receives federal grant funds for providing on-site technical consulting to enrolled physicians who are selecting, implementing or using an EHR.   This federal subsidy allows NTREC to charge primary care physicians only $300 for consulting services valued at $5,000.  

NTREC is focused on helping you:

• Select and implement a certified EHR (or upgrade your current EHR to a certified version),
• Optimize your practice workflow,
• Achieve meaningful use,
• Qualify for EHR incentives, and
• Obtain CME credit hours along the way

I am happy to report that NTREC services were successfully launched four months ago.   Since then, 289 physicians have enrolled for services and another 370 physicians have enrollment contracts in progress.   Our goal is to provide services to more than 1,500 physicians in North Texas by the end of 2011.   Our operational plans will enable us to scale physician services to even higher levels if needed to meet physician demand.  

The federal EHR incentive program and these discounted NTREC consulting services are unprecedented and genuine.   Please call NTREC to enroll and set an appointment for on-site consulting at (469) 648-5140 or by visiting  www.ntrec.org.   The NTREC’s dedicated team of experts will be considerate of your valuable time and show you how they can help you identify and meet your unique needs.

If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

 

Sincerely,

 Matt Murray, M.D.

Brown Lupton Health Center

Texas Christian University

 

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For Meaningful Use Payment: Goin' to the CHPL, Gonna Get a "CMS EHR ID"

Use of certified electronic health record (EHR) technology is a core requirement for physicians and hospitals to become “meaningful users” and to be eligible for payments under the Medicare or Medicaid EHR incentive programs.    Operationally, CMS requires providers who apply for these payments to submit the "CMS EHR ID" that their certified EHR technology is assigned.   Physicians and hospitals will benefit from an awareness of several issues revolving around EHR certification and on this CMS EHR ID, especially when "goin' to the CHPL" as noted below.

Awareness Issue #1:  The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) in 2010 established a temporary certification program for EHR products.    A permanent certification program, which builds upon the current temporary program, is expected to be ready to launch by the end of 2011.   This program uses ONC-Authorized Testing and Certification Bodies to test and certify EHR products.   The list of certified EHRs is updated as new products are certified and posted on the Certified HIT Product List (CHPL) website.    CHPL is maintained by ONC and is the sole, designated authoritative list of currently certified EHR products.  

Awareness Issue #2:    ONC certification is different from that provided by the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT).    CCHIT certification is based on more comprehensive criteria.    CCHIT certification continues to be an important resource for those who are in the process of selecting an EMR because of this more comprehensive testing.    ONC certification testing, on the other hand, is specifically based on the CMS Meaningful Use criteria. 

Awareness Issue #3:   EHR products are tested and certified by ONC as either a Complete EHR or a Modular EHR.   A Complete EHR product is defined as an EHR product that meets all of the certification criteria for meaningful use.  A Modular EHR product is defined as an EHR product that meets at least one but not all meaningful use criteria.

Awareness Issue #4:   When a physician or hospital apply for their incentive payment they are asked to submit to CMS the "CMS EHR ID" that is assigned to their EHR product(s).  The CHPL website is the only place where this ID number can be found.  

Awareness Issue #5:    When looking for this CMS EHR ID number, it is helpful to know that this is not the same number ONC provides the EHR vendors when they are certified.    This is because some providers may decide to use a modular approach and combine Modular EHR products from different vendors in order to achieve meaningful use (i.e. a basic EMR without e-prescribing from one vendor and an e-prescribing module from another).  

Awareness Issue #5:   As the website works today, the CMS EHR ID can only be found on the "Grocery Cart" page and only after the <Get CMS EHR ID> button is activated.    One first selects their EHR product(s), puts them in their "Grocery Cart" and then goes to their <Grocery Cart> page.    The button becomes available when one has either:

• selected a certified Complete EHR product

                                     or

• selected a set of certified Modular EHR products that meet all of the certification criteria      

It interesting and helpful that CHPL provides real-time feedback when selecting a set of Modular EHRs.  Once all of the criteria are met, the <Get CMS EHR ID> button becomes available.  

Awareness Issue #6:    Regarding the modular option, the CMS certification process does not include integrated testing of all the possible permutations of Modular EHR sets that can be selected.    So even though a set of Modular EHR products may produce a CMS EHR ID on the CHPL website, this does not mean that the selected set of products were tested as an integrated unit.   This does mean that the physician or hospital who is in the EHR selection process should not depend on the CMS EHR ID to determine whether the selected products can be interfaced or work together.     Due diligence will still be needed to ensure all of the selected Modular EHR products are compatible.   

In other words, if you're goin' to the CHPL and gonna' get an CMS EHR ID, it's best to know your EHR partners well before purchasing and implementing them!

Crossing the Quality Synapse: Interoperability is the Neurotransmitter Propagating 21st Century Healthcare

Yesterday at the 2010 ONC Grantee Meeting in Washington, D.C  I was invigorated by the optimistic energy, realistic networking and paucity of pessimism from over 1,000 participating grantees whose collective repository of health IT knowledge is astounding.   And it got me thinking, maybe the Institute of Medicine (IOM) got it wrong and that it is not actually a chasm...maybe we are...crossing the quality synapse?

Imagine for a moment that electronic health information is a charged impulse using health IT neuronal circuitry to propagate 21st century healthcare.  This neuronal circuit provides the infrastructure needed to enable charged impulses of the right information on the right patients to be sent or received wherever it is needed, whenever it is needed.  However, as we physicians know, the neuronal circuit is made up of many individual neurons that are not physically connected to one another.  Each neuron can individually propagate a charged impulse along its long, tubular-shaped axon, but the axon ends blindly at its terminal end.  Between it and the next neuron there is a space, called the synapse, across which the electrical impulse cannot travel.  This constraint prevents an individual neuron from transmitting the electronic impulse to its final destination.  On the other hand, an absence of such constraints and uncontrolled releases of electrical charges between the neurons of our brain would result in seizures.   So, some type of trusted intermediary is needed to enable the neurons to talk with one another in a standard and controlled manner...to be an interoperable neural circuit that coordinates and directs the traffic of electrical charges to their permitted destinations.     

In medicine we recognize the complexity of this synapse.  Although we have learned much about it, we remain humbled by what we do not yet know.  What we do know is that at the "receiving" end of a neuron there are tiny tentacles, or dendrites, that stick out into the synapse toward the "sending" neuron's axonal terminal.  When the charged impulse reaches the axon terminal, the action potential stimulates the chemical release of neurotransmitters from the terminal into the synapse.    The neurotransmitters physically travel across the synapse to the dendrites.  At that point the neurotransmitters become a catalyst for the transformation of the chemical process back into an electrical one.  The new electrical impulse travels from the dendrite into the neuronal axon and propagates down to the next synapse, where interoperability will again have to occur. 

Health IT interoperability is the 21st century neurotransmitter that is catalyzing the transformation of the healthcare system.  Without interoperability we know that electronic health information is severely devalued as it remains trapped in individual silos, just as an an absence of neurotransmitters would limit electrical impulses to a single neuron. 

Concurrent with ongoing neuroscience research on the complex synaptic neurotransmitters, medical researchers used what we already knew to initiate trials and studies in an effort to improve psychiatric care.  Breakthrough research demonstrated that a synaptic deficiency of one of the neurotransmitters in our brains, serotonin, can cause depression.  Through additional trials and experience we then discovered that SSRI medications, which elevate serotonin levels by inhibiting their "reuptake" in the synapses after being released, are useful when treating people with depression and other mood disorders.   Similarly, a deficient level of interoperability between EMRs depresses our ability to transform our healthcare system.  We need to use what we already know about interoperability to initiate trials and studies in an effort to raise our interoperability to optimal levels that will propel our healthcare system into the 21st century.     

Enhance Safe Use of EHRs By Aligning Implementation To Quality Goals

Safe use of electronic medical records (EMRs) is enhanced when physicians focus their EMR implementation on quality of care improvements.  Effective communication among the staff about these key goals creates a positive environment that serves as a catalyst for successful use of the EMR.  In addition, large healthcare systems and small physician offices are both less likely to encounter patient safety issues when they align their health information technology (IT) strategies to quality of care goals.  

Case Study:  Several years ago the leadership of an Accountable Care Organization (ACO) formed between a local healthcare system and a multi-specialty physician group began working collaboratively on a common vision for patient safety excellence.  System-wide integration and use of medication reconciliation were top priorities.  The EMR used by the hospitals have an ambulatory component that meets all of the critical requirements determined by the physician board members.  If implemented, the ambulatory and hospital EMRs could be integrated and share the same master patient index, drug formulary, medication index, allergy index and set of clinical decision support rules.  However, the physician board, influenced by several leading opinion-makers who favored an alternative EMR, convinced ACO leaders to allow the physicians to purchase their own ambulatory EMR and use system resources to purchase and develop a data repository that could send/receive (bi-directionally) and store data between multiple sources.  The vendors involved promised they could provide the infrastructure and tools necessary to capture and manipulate the data.  Two years later a patient suffers a severe anaphylactic reaction after receiving an antibiotic injection in one of the physician offices.  An investigation reveals that although the EMR had properly displayed the allergy, the antibiotic order had not triggered an allergy alert.  Further research reveals multiple ways for an allergy to be entered into their customized, bi-directional medication reconciliation tool that would successfully display the allergy in the ambulatory EMR, but not trigger an alert during the ordering process.  Their conclusion is that the use of different EMRs with multiple drug formularies, multiple medication and allergy indices and different clinical decision support rules is more complex than anticipated.  They suspended use of the medication reconciliation tool until they could determine whether they could more effectively execute their current strategy.

Key Points:  Effective organizational characteristics and a focus on quality of care are important catalysts for safe EMR use.

Cultivating a culture of safety, promoting transparent communications and alignment of strategic planning with prioritized goals to improve quality of care are examples of organizational characteristics that facilitate safe EMR use.  In this case the organization did well creating a shared vision with common goals/priorities regarding quality of care.   However, organizational alignment fell apart when the unbalanced interests from one part of the organization created the perceived need for an alternative strategy.   Although the new strategic plan was plausible, the organization did not have the resources or organizational discipline to effectively execute plans that were considerably more complex.   It will be paramount for ACOs to effectively manage such issues in the future.  Similarly, even the small, individual physician practice is more likely to be successful with an EMR implementation when they develop a strategy to improve quality of care through the implementation of an EMR.  

Safe Use of EMRs: Physicians Should Ensure Proactive IT Management of EMR Hardware / Software and Plan For Downtime With Mock Drills

This case study is the first of six cases used to illustrate aspects of EMR use that pose risks to patient safety.   The risks discussed in this case pertain to EMR hardware and software failures.  As with most EMR-related problems, the majority of patient safety issues associated with hardware/software failures can be traced back to controllable factors.  The safe and meaningful use of EMRs is facilitated by awareness of these risks and controllable factors.

Case Study:  At 0900 physicians in hospital-based ambulatory offices were suddenly unable to access their web-based EMR. The hospital’s IT Service Desk reported a wide outage of internet access due a “hardware failure” and the estimated time of repair was “unknown”.  The offices activated their paper-based downtime plans, but many patient safety issues were encountered.  For example, physicians were solely dependent on the patient’s recollection of allergies because they had no access to allergies recorded in the EMR.  A process was developed “on-the-fly” to use a laptop with mobile broadband connectivity to access the EMR, but before these were ready the original problem was resolved at 1130.  It was discovered that an IT employee installed a planned “Windows update” to the hospital’s networking hardware that morning with unexpected results.  After the problem was identified the update was “backed out” and the problem resolved.

Key Points:

• Hardware and software technology problems will occur, but most are preventable and can be minimized with proactive IT management

Access to secure and reliable patient data in an EMR is dependent on hardware and software that is properly sized, configured, managed and functioning.  Power outages, running out of data storage space, network outages, software conflicts, malicious intrusions and computer device failures are examples of technical problems that threaten safe use of EMRs.  Most technical problems, however, are preventable through proactive IT management.   For example, an old computer that burns out could have been prevented by proactively replacing old technology equipment at specified intervals.  Reputable IT experts know the “best practices” for proactive IT management (such as ITIL and COBIT).  In this case basic change management practices were not followed.  Physicians should make sure that their EMR hardware and software, whether physically located in their office or located elsewhere, are proactively managed by reputable IT experts.

• Physicians are responsible for developing “downtime plans” that describe how the office will safely care for patients when the EMR is unavailable

HIPAA requires patient data to be “backed up” and physicians need to be able to restore their EMR in the event of a complete hardware or software failure such as a flood, tornado or fire that destroys computer equipment and software.  “Disaster planning” addresses these needs and primarily requires the EMR vendor’s technical expertise and advice.  “Downtime plans”, on the other hand, primarily need the physician’s expertise to define what needs to happen in order to safely care for patients (what I call clinical continuity) and maintain business operations (commonly referred to as business continuity) when the EMR is unavailable.  Downtime planning should identify the critical patient data that is needed when the EMR is down and have written procedures on how that data will be accessed.  The plans should also describe procedures for the use of downtime paper forms for patient care tasks, medical record documentation and practice operation tasks (appointments, claims and billing) as well as what to do with them after the downtime.

• “Mock downtime drills” are an effective way to determine whether an office is prepared for an EMR downtime

In this case the physicians deserve applause for developing written downtime plans.  However, if they had previously simulated a downtime, then they would have been prepared with back-up laptops ready and available.  Although mock drills in themselves create risks, they are much more controllable than the risks inherent to unplanned EMR downtimes.

Work Flow Analysis Helps Physicians Select Ambulatory EMR That Meets Needs

In a previous blog the methods used to perform a work flow analysis in a physician's office as a part of the EMR selection process were described.  The  next steps are to:

Determine at a high level the future desired work flows (when an EMR will be used)

Prioritize this list of work flow desires

Develop a prioritized list of EMR functionalities needed to meet those  desires 

Compare EMR products based on these priorities

Document Future Desired Work Flows

An analysis of current work flow identifies bottlenecks in the physician's practice.  Changes in work flow may alleviate those bottlenecks.  Some of the identified changes may not be dependent on having an EMR and could be made immediately.  The other work flow changes that are dependent on using an EMR and will later become part of the EMR implementation.   

It is not readily apparent to many physicians how an EMR could improve work flow in their office.  There may also be unrealistic expectations about how an EMR could improve things.  Therefore, it is helpful to first gain knowledge about the "best uses" of ambulatory EMRs as experienced by other physicians before identifying desired future work flows.  To gain insights on the realistic and best uses of EMRs physicians may be wise to engage a knowledgeable IT consultant.  Alternatively, physicians may use other resources  to gain insights such as:

• DOQ-IT's Operational Redesign Workbook
• AHRQ Health IT Toolbox
• CCHIT
• Networking with colleagues
• Physician professional organizations

The knowledge gained on EMR "best uses" and the identified work flow  bottlenecks can now be analyzed together to determine at a high level what future work flows are desired for the practice. 

Prioritize this list of work flow desires

The physician practice may now discuss these desired work flow changes and prioritize them.  For the purposes of discussion let's suppose the practice has identified a top ten list of desired work flow changes that they want make when they implement an EMR.

Develop a prioritized list of EMR functionalities

The prioritized top ten list of desired work flow changes will naturally translate into a list of EMR functionalities that are top priority.  For instance, a practice that determines "refilling 80 prescriptions/day" is currently their top bottleneck, then the most important EMR functionality to compare among products is the usability of the EMR's e-prescribing feature.  A different practice may identify their top bottleneck to be getting patients through the check-in processes and determine that they want to reduce time patients spend filling out papers on clipboards by providing online registration forms and using a self-serve kiosk in the waiting room.  They also desire an EMR that can quickly register and check-in patients.  In that practice the most important EMR functionalities will be a robust patient portal, efficient integration with kiosks and the fewest number of necessary screens and "clicks" when registering or checking-in patients at the front desk.

Compare EMR products based on these priorities

EMRs have hundreds of functionalities.  It is not humanly possible to effectively compare hundreds of functionalities between different EMRs.  Comparing EMRs without focusing on specific needs easily leads to frustration and/or confusion.  Using the described list of prioritized EMR needs will improve the comparison process. 

Physicians might consider limiting their comparison to EMRs that have been certified by CCHIT (and soon to those certified for "Meaningful Use" as well).  One can be confident that a CCHIT-certified EMR has all of the functionalities that are described on the CCHIT website.  There are hundreds of such functionalities.   However, CCHIT does not necessarily quantify how well the EMR performs each function.  So, if a physician practice limits their comparison to CCHIT-certified EMRs, they can be assured the EMR can do those hundreds of things an EMR should be able to do and instead spend their time comparing how well the EMRs meet their own, identified "top ten" needs.  

Using an earlier example of an identified "top ten" EMR need, a comparison may find that EMR Product "A" allows prescription refills to be completed in 45 seconds using three screens and 17 clicks, while Product "B" refills prescriptions in 15 seconds (30 seconds faster) on one screen with 6 clicks.  Since the work flow analysis revealed that the practice has 80 refills/day, refilling prescriptions using Product "B"" would take 40 minutes less each day as compared to Product "B".  

In summary, it is helpful for a physician practice searching for an ambulatory EMR to perform a work flow analysis to identify the major bottlenecks in the office, gain insights on how EMRs can improve work flow, use this knowledge to develop a prioritized list of desired future work flows, identify the "top ten" things an EMR needs to do to meet those desires and then compare CCHIT-certified products based on this prioritized list of EMR needs.

EMR Selection Guide provides an outline of other topics on the selection process

EMR Implementation Guide provides an outline of topics on the implementation process

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