Psst. Hey, Buddy, wanna see an EHR, visit’s workflow? Here it is, thanks to the National Institutes of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) new report, NISTIR 7988, Integrating Electronic Health Records into Clinical Workflow, etc.
NIST wants to make EHRs usable and useful. It first took aim at patient safety EHR functions that endangered, confused users or were error prone. To counter these, it developed and recommended EHR usability protocols.
Now, in an extensive report, it’s tackled EHR workflow to determine where problems occur. The result is a comprehensive work with significant findings and recommendations. The question is: Is anyone listening?
NIST’s Analytical Approach
NIST decided to create a typical workflow by interviewing knowledgeable physicians, who it calls Subject Matter Experts, SMEs. The physicians had different specialties and used different EHRs, though who they were, NIST doesn’t say.
From their discussions, NIST’s analysts created the above chart, NIST’s Figure 2. NIST’s authors recognize that actual workflows will vary based on setting, sequences, staffing, etc., but that it provides a useful way to look at these issues.
What They Did With It
Working with their physicians, NIST’s analysts broke down the workflow into three sections: before, during and after the visit. Then, they broke down, or decomposed, each of those sections, like opening nested Russian dolls. For example, they segmented the physician’s encounter, below, and once again, broke each down into its functions.
It was at this stage the analysts found significant variations among the EHRs used by their physicians,
[T]here appeared to be high variation in whether and how the EHR was used during this period, how extensive each of the activities typically were for each SME, different based upon the type of patient, how complex the patient was, context of how busy the day was, and other factors. NSTIR 7988, p 18.
Despite these differences, the physicians identified two issues that crossed their EHRs:
- Working Diagnoses. The physicians wanted systems that let them create a working diagnosis and modify it as they worked until they made a final diagnosis. Similarly, they wanted to be able to back up and make changes as needed, something current systems make hard.
- Multiple Diagnoses. Diagnoses usually involve multiple causes, not single factors. They wanted their EHRs to support this.
These types of issues aren’t new to those familiar with EHR problems. What’s new is NIST, as an independent, scientific organization, defining, cataloguing and explaining them and their consequences.
What They Recommended
From this work, NIST’s analysts developed extensive and persuasive recommendations, in three categories:
- EHR Functions
- System Settings, and
- System Supports
EHR Functions
NIST’s recommends reducing practitioner workload, while increasing their options and supports. For example, they suggest:
- Workload Projections. Give practitioners a way to see their patient workloads in advance, so they can plan their work more effectively
- Notes to Self. Let users create reminder notes about upcoming visit issues or to highlight significant ,patient information. These would be analogous to their hand written notes they used to put on paper charts.
- Single Page Summaries. Create single page labs summaries rather than making users plow through long reports for new information.
- Single Page Discharge Summaries. Eliminate excessive boiler plate with more intelligent and useful discharge sheets.
- Highlight Time Critical Information. Segregate time critical information. Often they get mixed in with other notices where they may be overlooked or hard to find.
- Allow Time Pressure Overrides. When time is critical, EHRs should allow skipping certain functions.
- System Settings
NIST recommendations echo the familiar litany of issues that characterize poor implementations:
- Allow Patient Eye Contact. Exam room designs should put the doctor and patient in a comfortable, direct relationship with the computer as a support.
- Login Simplification. Allow continuous logins or otherwise cut down on constant login and outs.
System Supports
The physicians recognized they often caused workflow bottlenecks. NIST recommended off loading work to medical assistants, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, etc.. For example, physician assistants could draft predicted orders for routine situations for the physician to review and approve.
Progress Note Frustrations
In the thorny area of clinical documentation, the report details physician frustration with their EHRs. All experienced excessive or missing options, click option hell, excessive output, puzzling terms, etc. These were compounded by time consuming system steps that did not aid in diagnosis or solving patient problems. The report discusses their attempts at improving documentation:
Several of the SMEs had attempted and then abandoned strategies to increase the efficiency of documentation. One SME reported that copying and pasting and “smart text” where typing commands generate auto-text had a “vigilance problem.” The issue was that it would be too easy to put the wrong or outdated information in or in the wrong place and not detect it, and then someone later, including himself, could act on it not realizing that it was incorrect.
One physician described an attempt to use automated speech recognition for dictation for a patient with scleritis, which is inflammation of the white of the eye. He stopped using the software when what was documented in the note was “squirrel actress.”
Another SME described that colleagues relied upon medical assistants to draft the note and then completed it, but they did not like that approach because it was too tempting to rely upon what was typed without reviewing it, and he felt the medical knowledge level was not high enough for this task.
One SME described a reluctance to use any scribe, including a medical student, because the risk would be too high of misunderstanding and thus not correctly documenting the historical information, diagnosis, and treatment plan. This was particularly problematic if the physician had information from prior visits, which contributed to these elements, which were not discussed in detail during the visit. NSTIR 7988, p. 28
Coding their diagnoses into progress notes also came in for criticism:
All SMEs described frustration with requirements to enter information into progress notes, …, which were applied to the notes in order to have sufficient justification to receive reimbursement for services. Although all of the SMEs acknowledged the central importance of receiving reimbursement in order to function as a business, this information was often not important for clinical needs. NSTIR 7988, p. 28
Role Based Progress Note
Unlike other areas of the report, the doctors could not agree on what to do, nor does NIST offer any specific cures for documentation problems. Instead, NIST recommends using a new, role based, progress note:
[T]he progress note for a primary care physician would have a different view from a specialist such as a urologist physician, who might not need to see all of the information displayed to the primary care physician. Similarly, the view of the note for primary care providers could differ from the view of a billing and coding specialist. … NSTIR 7988, p. 28
Will ONC Respond?
In this and its prior reports, NIST covers a lot of EHR issues making sensible recommendations that not only improve functionality, but more importantly improve patient safety. However, NIST’s recommendations are just that. It’s not a regulatory agency, nor is supposed to be one. Instead, its role is to work with industry and experts to develop usable, practical approaches to tough technical, often safety related, problems. To its credit, it’s done this in a vast number of fields from airplane cockpits, nuclear reactors, and atomic clocks to bullet proof vests.
However, its EHR actions have not gained any noticeable traction. If any EHR vendor has implemented NIST’s usability protocols, they haven’t said so. They are not alone.
Notably ONC, one of NIST’s major EHR partners, refuses to incorporate any of NIST’s usability recommendations. Instead, ONC requires vendors to implement User Centered Design, but does not define it, letting each vendor do that for themselves.
NIST has many answers to common EHR workflow and usability problems. The question is, who will bring them to bear?
