I’ve blogged before about the importance of decreasing the digital divide in this country in order to truly move healthcare interoperability forward. As I mentioned last month, “Only those patients who have access to these digital healthcare technologies will begin to clamor for them at their next doctors’ visits. Only patients’ whose doctors in turn have reached out to them via email, text or social media regarding the switch to electronic medical records, development of health information exchange and the benefits to care these will hopefully bring will be ready and willing to go with the digital flow.”

When news came across my somewhat cluttered desk of Emdeon’s initiative to provide electronic health record (EHR) technology to physicians in New Jersey’s underserved communities, I first thought, “Yes! That’s what I’m talkin’ about!” Then I put on my journalist/blogger hat and thought, “Will this truly change anything in these particular communities, or is this just good PR?”

A quick bit of background: Emdeon is partnering with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Minority Health, New Jersey Health Information Technology Extension Center (NJ-HITEC), the state’s REC, and the HIMSS Latino Community. Through the initiative, Emdeon will donate Emdeon Clinician licenses to 100 healthcare providers who practice within medically underserved areas and/or healthcare provider shortage areas, as designated by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), according to a recent Emdeon press release. The company will waive the license fee for these physicians for one year.

The same press release also mentions “EHR adoption is lower among providers serving Hispanic patients who are uninsured or rely on Medicaid, and is lower among providers serving uninsured, non-Hispanic black patients than among providers serving privately insured, non-Hispanic white patients.”

The initiative sounds like a great idea, but the one-year stipulation got me thinking (a bad habit, I know). What will these physicians, who presumably can’t really afford this technology now, do after their year is up? I reached out to Miriam Paramore, Senior Vice President – clinical and government services at Emdeon, to learn more about the ins and outs of the program.

How did the initiative come about?
Miriam Paramore: During the fall of 2010, leaders from the Office of Minority Health (OMH) and Health Information Technology issued a public, written request to health IT vendors, asking them to pay special attention to healthcare providers within underserved communities. This initiative is known as The Alliance to Reduce Health IT Disparities. Emdeon is serving as a private partner with the OMH to offer access to health IT products and services to providers within undeserved communities in New Jersey. We were thrilled to volunteer and to work within these communities.

Has Emdeon ever done anything like this before?
We’re happy to do part of this effort with HHS and it is the first time we’ve partnered with them.  We have great empathy for the challenges of the physicians in underserved communities and we want to help.

What sort of challenges do small physician practices in underserved communities typically encounter?
In addition to challenges like poverty and health disparities amongst their patient population, providers in underserved communities and smaller practice offices face expensive costs associated with on-boarding EHRs. Emdeon created the Emdeon Clinician solution as an affordable EHR “lite” solution for these small practice physicians or those working in underserved communities. They now have an affordable, easy-to-use solution that will help them to qualify for federal HITECH stimulus dollars without unnecessary disruption and expense of a full-blown EHR system.

How will you work with these 100 physician practices to ensure they are able to continue using the donated EHR after the year-long license expires?
Once the 12-month period expires, providers will be able to continue using Emdeon Clinician for only $99 per provider, per month. Emdeon usually has a $500 implementation and training fee [that, for this program,] has been discounted to a one-time fee of $200 for the providers participating in this project. This is a considerable discount and the fee would only have to be paid once. We will begin outreach to these providers in advance of the expiration date so they are aware of the opportunity to remain with Emdeon Clinician for the low fee following the initial 12-month period.

How will Emdeon work with NJ-HITEC and the HIMSS Latino Community throughout this year to ensure that these practices receive continued training and support?
Emdeon has taken the lead with managing this initiative between all partners with monthly meetings to monitor progress. We have a dedicated project manager, who has mapped a process with the internal team to assist with implementing these physicians as soon as possible. Our custom phone number (1-855-840-7120) connects interested providers directly with a dedicated clinical sales executive who can assist them throughout the enrollment process.

The NJ-HITEC and HIMSS Latino partners are assisting in the recruitment of providers who practice within medically underserved areas for this program from their vast networks across New Jersey communities. These partners are working cooperatively with Emdeon to create a strategy that focuses upon identifying and recruiting providers within underserved communities who are willing to adopt EHRs, especially those interested in qualifying for federal incentive dollars.

How many practices do you anticipate being eligible, and how many do you expect will apply?
While we aren’t sure how many will apply, the HHS OMH recognized that the counties of Camden, Essex and Passaic have the largest percentage of underserved communities. Through our collaborative efforts with the OMH, HIMSS Latino and NJ HITEC, we hope to reach many of those physicians within those counties to take advantage of the 12-month program.

How will Emdeon and its partners determine if this program is a success?
Together with our partners, we believe success will be donating all 100 licenses to providers in underserved communities. The reporting element of this project will help OMH understand the progress of EHR adoption in the context of how long implementation takes in its entirety.

So it seems that Emdeon and its partners certainly have their ducks in a row when it comes to aiding and abetting these physicians before, during and even after the program is technically over. I’ll be interested to see if this model will, in fact, be successful, and if it can be supported in other underserved areas across the nation.

For more information on participating in the program, check out: http://www.emdeon.com/newjersey/

Time for the next entry covering Shawn Riley’s list of 101 Tips to Make your EMR and EHR More Useful. I met someone at a conference who commented that they liked this series of posts. I hope you’re all enjoying the series as well.

20 Data collaboration is key to patient safety
I think this tip might need to be worded, “Data collaboration should be key to patient safety.” Unfortunately, it’s a mostly unrealized dream at this point. You might even be able to say that data collaboration will be key to patient safety. There really are amazing use cases where data collaboration can improve the care patients receive. It’s a sad state of affairs that so many of the major EHR companies are dead set on protecting their walled gardens. One has even gone so far as to say that patient safety is in danger with multiple systems. Certainly there are some risks associated with multiple systems, but the benefits far outweigh the risks. In fact, patient safety is at stake thanks to those who won’t participate in healthcare data collaboration.

19 Know how customizable the clinical work flows are!
This is a good tip when doing your EMR selection. It’s incredibly valuable to understand how the EMR handles clinical workflows and how well those workflows fit into your established clinical workflows. I’m a proponent of doing the best you can to use established workflows when implementing an EHR. Then, over time adjusting those workflows as needed to gain more efficiency.

18 How easy is it to customize the system overall?
I’d take this EHR tip from a couple angles. First, is how easily can you customize the EMR system. Yes, some of it could be the EMR workflows that I talked about in EMR Tip #19 above, but it could be a whole set of other options (billing, scheduling, messaging, etc). The second part of this suggestion relates to how well this EHR will adapt to the constantly changing clinical environment. Will they be able to handle ICD-10 without too much pain for you? Will you be able to make it work in an ACO environment? Healthcare is constantly changing and so you want to make sure your EHR can be customized to fit your changing needs.

17 Know work flow can be hard coded to ensure compliance.
There are times when hard coding the workflow is incredibly valuable. Certainly this will frustrate some providers, but if done correctly most will understand the need to hard code the workflow to ensure compliance. It’s a fine line to walk, but there are plenty of instances where hard coded workflows can do wonders to improve the care you provide.

16 Ensure easy access to the system via multiple platforms.
As much as providers might not like checking in on the EMR remotely, it’s often absolutely necessary. So, it’s important to ensure that your EMR is available on every medium possible. Can it be connected to remotely? Does it work on the latest devices? Yes, the iPad has a huge portion of the physician market share right now, but we’ll see how long that lasts. Every year a new device comes out and you’ll want an EMR vendor that’s keeping an eye on this movement and making the EMR available on the best technology.

If you want to see my analysis of the other 101 EMR and EHR tips, I’ll be updating this page with my 101 EMR and EHR tips analysis. So, click on that link to see the other EMR tips.

Time for the next entry covering Shawn Riley’s list of 101 Tips to Make your EMR and EHR More Useful. I met someone at a conference who commented that they liked this series of posts. I hope you’re all enjoying the series as well.

25. Care coordination is much easier in an EMR and should be evaluated to be used
The idea of care coordination has never been more important in the history of healthcare. It’s the future of healthcare (at least in the US). Whether they end up being called ACOs or some other term, the switch to needing to coordinate care in order to improve the health of a population is happening as we speak. Luckily, EMR software is a great way to facilitate this care coordination.

24. Take advantage of E-Health tools
I actually think that this is a big call to EMR vendors to integrate their EMR software with the various e-health tools out there today. EHR vendors that think they can create every e-Health tool a doctor could want are going to be left behind by those systems which support the most popular consumer health tools on the market. However, that’s not to say that doctors can’t do their part. Start getting your patient using the e-health tools that will benefit them as a patient and then start requesting that your EMR vendor support the tools you’re using.

23. Make certain all caregivers know that logs are kept for any system overrides
Don’t hide the fact that everything is logged. Let everyone know that whatever is done on the system is logged. While some may see this as big brother watching them, most will realize that the logs are a protection for them. They log exactly what was done and said and who did it.

I remember one time there was some problem in our EMR system. I can’t remember the specific issue. Well, it was brought up in our staff meeting and the director said, whoever made this mistake is going to be providing breakfast for the whole staff. I went into the logs to see who’d accessed the patient to do the offending task. Little did the director (who was also a practicing provider a few times a week) know that she was the offending party. Everyone in the clinic enjoyed a nice breakfast that week.

22. Give caregivers the ability to override the system when necessary
Mistakes happen in documentation in an EMR. We’re all imperfect human beings (except for my wife) who make mistakes. So, you need an option and likely a process for how and who can make corrections to what was done in the EMR. Just be sure that everything that’s “overwritten” is logged and the reason for the change is well documented.

21. Develop a root cause analysis process for the EMR
I’m not that familiar with root cause analysis processes, so I’ll just share what Shawn says about it:

You very likely already have a root cause analysis model for your practice. You will need to adopt that model to the EMR. If you don’t, you will create a likelihood for the same errors to continually repeat. The EMR process is different than a usual root cause analysis. You will need to take into account interfaces, security roles, single sign on, and several other things beyond the “simple” human process.

If you want to see my analysis of the other 101 EMR and EHR tips, I’ll be updating this page with my 101 EMR and EHR tips analysis. So, click on that link to see the other EMR tips.

Time for the next entry covering Shawn Riley’s list of 101 Tips to Make your EMR and EHR More Useful. I met someone at a conference who commented that they liked this series of posts. I hope you’re all enjoying the series as well.

30. Remember that the EMR is only part of the safety problem
Remember that the EMR is just a tool. How you use that tool still matters. How you manage that tool matters. How you implement that tool matters. Safety is a result of great processes and that doesn’t change when you implement an EMR. In fact, I’d say it’s even more important. The same applies to bad clinical workflows. EMR won’t solve those bad workflows either. You can try to do a redesign of the workflows with the EMR implementation, but that often doesn’t go over well.

29. Errors should be easily reportable
To be honest, I’m not sure exactly which errors Shawn is talking about. I think I’ll take a different spin on it than what he intended and talk about the errors or issues that someone has using an EMR. This is particularly important when you first implement an EMR. You should want to know the errors that are occurring regularly so you can fix them. Make it easy for them to report them and provide proper encouragement and/or rewards for reporting errors they have with the system. Ignorance is not bliss…it always catches up to you eventually.

28. Use data to show both individual and system safety metrics
The key component that Shawn is describing here is the ability to report on various cross sections of data (individual vs system). If you can’t chop up your data to really know what’s going on in your system, then you’re not going to be able to really pinpoint the issues that users are having. Maybe it’s only one person who’s bringing down the average for the entire hospital. You don’t want to make sweeping changes to the system that annoy the majority of users when all you really needed to do was address the issues of an individual or small group of individuals.

27. Record management in the EMR is just as important as in paper
You thought HIM was done when you got the EMR. Wrong! Their role is still very important. Granted, it changes pretty dramatically, but in the clinics I’ve worked in the records management people were able to do a much more effective job improving the patient record in the EMR. Many of the things they did they never had time to do cause they were too busy pulling and filing paper charts.

26. Evaluate decision support tools for a fit to your needs
I believe that the clinical decision support tools are going to be the thing that changes the most over the next 5-10 years. You should definitely see how the clinical decision support tools they have available fit into your environment, but also spend as much time seeing what they’ve implemented and what their road map and method of implementing new clinical decision support tools is so you know where they’re going to be with their tools and product in five years.

If you want to see my analysis of the other 101 EMR and EHR tips, I’ll be updating this page with my 101 EMR and EHR tips analysis. So, click on that link to see the other EMR tips.

Lately I’ve been traveling to more and more EMR and Healthcare IT related conferences. The past couple days I’ve been enjoying my time at the MGMA conference in Las Vegas (although, I didn’t have to travel to this one since I live in Las Vegas). This is my first time attending the MGMA conference. From what I can tell the attendance and exhibit hall have done very well. In fact, I just asked and they’ve had 3500 conference attendees and a total of 5700 people in Las Vegas for the MGMA conference. They tell me that’s a 19% growth over last year.

What I’ve found most interesting is that unlike many conferences I’ve been at, the sessions at MGMA have been incredibly full. In fact, many of them have been standing room only. This is in contrast to the exhibit floor which has felt rather empty. There are a few short periods that were busy in the exhibit hall, but overall it seems like MGMA attendees prefer to go to the educational session as opposed to being in the exhibit hall.

I asked professional conference attender (otherwise known as Healthcare IT journalist) Neil Versel who blogs at Meaningful Health IT News why this might be the case. He said that maybe those attending MGMA have already made their EHR selection, so they’re more interested in hearing from experts as opposed to browsing products. Of course, he did highlight that it was those that attended had already implemented an EHR since we know that the majority have not yet implemented an EHR.

While I think this could be part of the reason, I wonder if there’s not something more at work. If I’d done better at taking notes during the Marcus Buckingham keynote, I could maybe look at the profiles he found in the MGMA audience to explain it. A part of me wonders how many of the MGMA attendees are decision makers as opposed to operational leaders. I’m sure they’re all over the spectrum, but sessions are likely more interesting for operations and compliance people.

As a first time attendee, I’ve been really impressed with MGMA. They’re well organized and brought together a lot of interesting vendors and attendees.

Time for the next entry covering Shawn Riley’s list of 101 Tips to Make your EMR and EHR More Useful. I hope you’re enjoying the series.

35. CPOE is important, but every EMR will have it.
I think that the CPOE discussion hit a head for me when I saw the CPOE requirements that were baked into meaningful use. Then, I heard someone from the often lauded (appropriately so) IHC in Utah who said that IHC didn’t have CPOE and it would be hard for them to meet that benchmark. Ok, so I’m more of an ambulatory guy than I am hospital, but this surprised me. In the clinics I’ve helped with EHR, CPOE is one of the first things we implemented. No doubt that every EMR has CPOE capabilities.

34. Make sure adverse drug events reporting is comprehensive
Yes, not all drug to drug, drug to allergy, etc databases are created equal. Not to mention some EHR vendors haven’t actually implemented these features (although, MU is changing that). I’d really love for a doctor and an EMR company to go through and rate the various drug database companies. How comprehensive are they? How good can you integrate them into your EHR? etc etc etc.

33. Make certain drug interactions are easy to manage for the physician
I won’t go into all the details of alert fatigue in detail. Let’s just summarize it this way: You must find the balance between when to alert, what to alert, how to alert and how to ignore the alert. Plus, all of the opposites of when not to alert, what not to alert, and how to not ignore the alert.

32. Ensure integration to other products is possible
Is it possible that you could buy an EMR with no integration? Possibly, but I have yet to see it. At a bare minimum clinics are going to want to have integration with lab software and ePrescribing (pharmacies). That doesn’t include many of the other common interfaces such as integration with practice management systems, hospitals, radiology, etc. How well your EMR handles these integration situations can really impact the enjoyment of your EHR.

31. Ensure information sharing is easy
This tip could definitely be argued, but I believe we’re headed down the road of information sharing. It’s going to still take a while to get to the nirvana of information sharing, but we’ve started down the road and there’s no turning back. Kind of reminds me of Splash Mountain at Disneyland where the rabbit has a sign that says there’s no turning back now. My son didn’t like that sign so much and I’m sure many people won’t like that there’s no turning back on data sharing either. However, it’s going to happen.

If you want to see my analysis of the other 101 EMR and EHR tips, I’ll be updating this page with my 101 EMR and EHR tips analysis. So, click on that link to see the other EMR tips.

Time for the next entry covering Shawn Riley’s list of 101 Tips to Make your EMR and EHR More Useful. I hope you’re enjoying the series.

40. Do NOT let the finance department drive the EMR choice or deployment
I’m far too much of a physician advocate to even imagine a finance department driving the EMR choice and deployment plan. Ok, I understand that it happens, but it’s a travesty when it does. Considering the finance department will almost never use the system, it should make sense to everyone to have the users of the system help drive the EMR choice and deployment. After all, they will have to use the system once deployed.

Let’s not confuse what I’m saying. I’m not saying that finance shouldn’t be involved in the EMR choice. I’m not saying that finance can’t provide some great insights and an outside perspective. I also am not saying that users of the EMR should hold the hospital hostage with crazy demands that could never be met. It’s definitely a balance, but focus on the users of the EMR will lead to happy results.

39. Ensure work flow can be hard coded when necessary, and not hard coded when necessary
Related to this EHR tip is understanding when the EHR company has chosen to hard code certain fields or work flows. You’ll be surprised how many EHR have hard coded work flows with no way to change them. In some cases, that’s fine and even beneficial. However, in many other cases, it could really cause you pain in dealing with their hard coded work flows.

Realize which parts of the EHR can be changed/modified and which ones you’re stuck with (at least until the next release..or the next release….or the next release…).

38. You can move to population based medicine
You’re brave to do population based medicine on paper. Computers are great at crunching and displaying the data for this.

37. Safety is created by design
Just because you use an EHR doesn’t mean you don’t need great procedures that ensure safety. Sure, EHRs have some things built in to help with safety, but more often than not it’s a mixture of EHR functionality and design that results in safety. Don’t throw out all your principles of safety when you implement your EHR.

36. Medication Reconciliation should be a simple process
I’m not sure we’ve hit the holy grail of medication reconciliation in an EHR yet, but we’re getting closer. It’s worth the time to make this happen and will likely be required in the future.

If you want to see my analysis of the other 101 EMR and EHR tips, I’ll be updating this page with my 101 EMR and EHR tips analysis. So, click on that link to see the other EMR tips.

Time for the next entry covering Shawn Riley’s list of 101 Tips to Make your EMR and EHR More Useful. I hope you’re enjoying the series.

45. Think about ICD-10 compliance sooner than later
ICD-10 goes into effect October 1, 2013. (barring them postponing it again). Can you imagine if you’ve implemented an EHR and then find out that the EHR isn’t ready to support ICD-10? Sure, we’re still a little ways out, but ICD-10 has been on the docket for a long time coming.

44. Make sure your revenue cycle process is as clean as possible
Cleaner processes are easier to implement. Your revenue is going to take a hit when you first implement an EHR in your office just based on the learning curve of EHR. You don’t want to add to the changes by having to change any issues with revenue cycle at the same time.

43. Don’t underestimate the time necessary to be compliant with 5010
This won’t be as bad as ICD-10 for most practices, but you want to be ready for it.

42. Keep transcription in mind
Make sure you have a good understanding of the costs associated with cutting out transcription. Notice that I said costs and not savings. I already know that you’re aware of the savings of cutting transcription. What you might not have taken into account is the costs of ending transcription. If you’re doing voice recognition then you’re going to need the software, a great microphone, and possibly faster/newer computers. If you’re doing voice recognition there will be more manual corrections that you’ll have to do than in transcription. If you’re cutting out all voice input of data, then just be aware that you may hate “all the clicks” and want to go back to transcription in some form. Is your EMR conducive with that change if you decide to go back to transcription?

41. Watch your insurance claim denials
Of course, most clinics are doing this already. However, a whole new set of claim denials will happen because of how your EMR files those claims. You don’t want to miss out on the insurance money because you can’t handle the claim denials in a timely manner.

If you want to see my analysis of the other 101 EMR and EHR tips, I’ll be updating this page with my 101 EMR and EHR tips analysis. So, click on that link to see the other EMR tips.

Everyone probably realizes by now that I love to read first hand experiences with EMR and EHR. I guess I’ve always loved stories and I’ve always loved to tell stories, so maybe that’s where that comes from. I guess this is why I loved Katherine Rourke’s post called “Would An EMR Have Improved My Son’s ED Care?” on the Hospital EMR and EHR website. It’s a great read if you love first hand experiences with EMR as I do.

Katherine does raise a challenging question, “Does an EMR improve patient care?”

In past presentations, I’ve always put the idea of an EMR improving patient care under the “possible EHR benefits.” (See a full list of EMR and EHR Benefits) As many things in life there’s a big “Depends!” that is the b est answer to that question. The answer to this question depends on what kind of care you were offering previously, the type of care you offer, the EMR you chose, the features you chose to employ in that EMR, the match between your workflow and the EMR workflow, and I’m sure another dozen other depends as well.

What’s more important to point out is that an EMR can improve patient care. I certainly can’t guarantee that an EMR will improve patient care in your clinic, but I’ve seen many cases where it has improved patient care and so I know it’s possible. The biggest determining factor in whether an EMR will improve patient care in your clinic is your desire to have it do so.

Many times in life, you get what you want. Do you want an EMR to improve your patient care? Or were you too focused on wanting to get the EHR Incentive money? Not that these and other benefits are mutually exclusive, but the focus of your EHR implementation matters a lot. Make sure you’re focused on the right things and your EMR selection and implementation will go 100 times better. In fact, it will even improve patient care if you want it to.

In celebration of National Health Information Technology Week –  proclaimed by President Obama earlier this week in an effort to “urge all Americans to learn more about the benefits of Health IT by visiting HealthIT.gov, take action to increase adoption and meaningful use of Health IT, and utilize the information Health IT provides to improve the quality, safety, and cost effectiveness of health care in the United States – I’m hitting the road and heading to North Carolina.

Actually, it’s pure coincidence that my annual Fall road trip to Charlotte and Chapel Hill coincides with this newly official week of celebratory activities. (You can view a list of events here.) But it did prompt me to ponder the state of North Carolina’s EMR and overall healthcare IT utilization. My first stop was the HIMSS State HIT Dashboard, a handy resource that provides an overview of all 50 states’ utilization of healthcare IT.

According to HIMSS, as of September, 2011, North Carolina has six Health Information Exchanges (HIEs):

•  NC Healthcare Information and Communications Alliance Inc. (NCHICA)
•  Carolina HIE
•  Coastal Connect
•  Western NC Health Network (WNCHN Data Link)
•  Southern Piedmont Partnership for Public Health (SoPHIE)
•  Sandhills Community Care Network

The state’s regional extension center, which assists the state’s physicians with selecting and implementing EMRs, has at this point recruited 50% of the providers in its target group of 3,500 priority primary care providers, according to the NCHICA website. The NCHICA seems to be the main governing/advisory body over the state’s HIT activities. Its 239 member organizations will converge in just over a week at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville for its annual conference and exhibit. The lineup of sessions looks pretty interesting, especially “So You’ve Decided to Implement an EHR, Now What?” I’m sure conference attendees will have a great time at the Brews Cruise as well.

My next stop was Google, where a quick search yielded the fact that North Carolina, and the Duke Center for Health Informatics in particular, is home to MindLinc, an EMR for behavioral health. It is now the world’s largest codified behavioral health database, and provides information for research and benchmarking purposes.

My last stop was YouTube, where I found an interesting video created by Janet Apter, an RN and member of the faculty at the Duke School of Nursing, for Duke’s Doctor of Nursing Practice Program. Entitled “Electronic Health Record – a Promising Solution,” the video shares the perspective of one nurse/patient’s frustration with a lack of interoperability between facilities in the same health system, and makes a simple case for the need for a nationwide EHR system.