Originally published on December 22, 2016 at www.lmshealthpro.com.
By Kristen Brady
As
of the year 2014, 83 percent of physicians were utilizing EHRs, and reaping the benefits of
their reduced long-range costs, more effective storage, better informational
accessibility, improved security and loss prevention, and enhanced accuracy and
readability.
In spite of all the positives, however, EHR still can get in
the way of patient satisfaction. As a matter of fact, the main physician complaint concerning EHRs is that they’ll worsen patient service by reducing face-time with patients,
as well as interfering with doctors’ capability of seeing more patients. Plus,
of the admittedly smaller proportion of doctors who are not using EHR, 40
percent state that it is because they interfere with doctor/patient relationships.
Nowadays, you cannot afford sub-par patient satisfaction
ratings; therefore, below are four methods of keeping EHR from dragging
down a patients’ happiness with care.
Concentrate on
training
It is never too late to spend the time training doctors on
EHR. Lean on a vendor — allow them to come in and display tips and hints for
more effective use, and request that they assist you in connecting with other
doctors who use the same version of EHR. Observe these other doctors in
practice, talk about daily solutions, and bring this knowledge back to your
practice. Keep in mind: Training does not end just because a software was
installed.
Implement human
solutions
Health IT isn’t the be-all, end-all. A human touch never can
be completely replaced by technological options. ‘One of patients’ largest
let-downs would be as their physicians keep glancing between their screens and
them,’ wrote one physician. ‘Therefore, if we’re
actually serious about bettering patient satisfaction and health care
experience, how can we allow this situation to go on?’ Utilizing scribes to
record every patient encounter, recording all details in real time, will
restore the connection between patient and doctor. Rather than looking
distracted or staring at a screen, scribes are able to do all of the
administrative work, allowing doctors to get the most details out of all
encounters and boost patient satisfaction all at the same time.
Pursue
interoperability
Be certain the EHR software will interact with additional
EHRs within your community in order for data-sharing to be seamless; this will
have two important effects. Firstly, interoperability leads to transparency in
clinical data, provider performance and prices, all of which are assisting in
driving the Department of Health & Human Services’ movement towards
reimbursement for effectiveness and quality of care. Secondly, it’ll mean that
patient records are easily added to and transferred between additional providers.
Alleviate the
administrative burdenOne recent study showed that interns ‘currently spend only about 10% of the day being involved in direct patient care in the hospital and nearly 50 percent of the time on computers.’ Scribes may input commonly utilized codes, and produce the encounter/operative note, removing a ton of work on the back end. Doctors ought to be spending time seeing their patients — which will increase access to care (therefore boosting patient satisfaction) and possible revenue — and then signing off papers they know are correct and complete. There isn’t any sense in applying all of that time in medical training to administrative activities over patient care.
Leading
Management Solutions helps medical practice leaders identify ways to improve
operations to increase revenue, employee engagement, and patient satisfaction.
Learn more about us at www.lmshealthpro.com.
About the Author:
Kristen
Brady is the founder and owner of Kaboom Social Media, your social media marketing and content specialists!
Follow her on Twitter: @kb54927
