August 25, 2009

Leveraging Hospital Resources to Lower Barriers and Drive Meaningful Use of EMR by Physicians

The HITECH Act portion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) puts in place provisions for subsidies to help drive electronic medical record (EMR) adoption as well as future penalties for providers that fail to adopt EMRs. This recent development, and future changes on the path to U.S. healthcare reform, promises to affect the technology used by providers and drive the adoption of EMR applications. To meet all of the challenges of EMR adoption, office-based providers need integrated solutions that address not only cost but also the technology, workflow, and human factor issues associated with EMRs. Addressing issues will help accelerate EMR adoption for providers and drive users toward both meaningful use and the quality and efficiency goals associated with EMR. An integrated EMR solution for an ambulatory practice should address the following areas: EMR application selection, hosting, and licensing, user interface, end-to-end technology site assessment, readiness of the practice and providers, clinical staff buy-in, process improvement and clinical transformation, integration with practice management systems, interoperability, budget, IT support availability, and outside assistance and options for collaboration.