In the 2019 story in The O&P EDGE, “O&P Ten Years Later: State of the Decade Reflections,” Asar’s comments reflected the continual need to use new technologies to its best advantage.1
“[EHRs] and electronic practice management (EPM) are a must today, however, there is also a high risk of failure if not implemented correctly. It’s not simply about implementing a paperless system, it’s also about significantly revamping the workflow and processes within a clinic so you can take advantage of the paperless environment and streamline the delivery of patient care. In addition to our EHR and EPM implementations, we have begun removing the administrative burden from our clinics by consolidating certain functions so that teams within our clinics can be focused on patient care. We believe that is a necessary step in the evolution of how O&P care is delivered to patients.”
After finding that physicians in the United States spend about 4.5 hours a day on EHRs,2 an analysis of EHR usage within various specialties concluded that a lot of medical professionals spend a similar amount of time: “There was no relationship between specialty and result.”3 However, O&P wasn’t included in the results, and because it’s somewhat unique in its specialization, without specific data it’s hard to know if this result can be translated.
“Regardless of your position, there is no doubt that EHRs have changed the face of healthcare,” Sandra Hales, associate vice president for IT clinical applications at Banner Health told Becker’s. “Patients now have timely access to records and data that is simplified for understanding, and there’s a level of inclusivity and responsibility for patients to engage in their own care.”
In 2009, then President Barack Obama signed the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (the HITECH Act), which included incentives for hospitals to use EHRs. Many health system leaders agreed that the transition to digital wouldn’t have happened as quickly, or at all, without this push.
Now, artificial intelligence (AI) is changing how EHRs are used.
AI
I am confident that [AI] will accelerate what we know as today’s health record,” said Ed McCallister, CIO, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, in Becker’s Health IT story.
Sophia Saleem, MD, chief medical information officer, Northwell Health described how AI could enhance traditional EHR systems.
“One of the things that we missed out on with EMR implementation was really getting the clinical voice in the design of it,” she said. “We should not make that mistake when it comes to AI.”
Dan Roth, MD, chief clinical officer, Trinity Health, told Becker’s that there is an “inflection point” with AI, where it has the potential to reduce clinicians’ documentation workloads rather than add to them.
“In the next one, three, five years, we’ll be able to significantly alleviate that burden using technologies that are coming,” he said.
He said EHRs have been disparaged as “death by 1,000 clicks,” but that those clicks are often requested by practitioners who request more opportunities for data collection, which shows a growing appreciation for the value of data.
“In the last two years, I have received medical care from three different states,” said Vinay Vaidya, MD, chief medical information officer, Phoenix Children’s. “Nowadays we take it for granted, but my appointment from one state to the other was seamless. My records were seamless, my medication list was seamless. Instead of the glass half full, I think [EHR technology is] 90 percent there. “The tremendous advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning now rest on the shoulders of data, and it rests on electronic data.”
Read Becker’s Health IT article on its website.
References
- https://opedge.com/op-ten-years-later-state-of-the-decade-reflections/
- https://www.medicaleconomics.com/view/physicians-spend-4-5-hours-a-day-on-electronic-health-records
- https://www.kevinmd.com/2022/04/how-much-time-do-physicians-spend-in-the-ehr.html
