October 4th was the first day of the National REC and HIE Summit West. I attended the preconference symposium on "Meaningful Use - What It Is and How To Qualify." What impressed me about this symposium was the sincerity and passion of the speakers, who are early adopters of EHRs and true physician champions.
"Helping Providers Achieve Meaningful Use," was the topic of Sherellen Gerhart, MD. Gerhart introduced herself as being an early adopter who has experienced failed implementations and is on her third EHR. Although there was a lot of frustration and she was extremely disappointed in the failures, she didn't pull the plug on the whole thing. Her response was: "We could do better."
That's the kind of attitude we need if the industry is going to move forward.
Gerhart, who maintains a private practice, said that private practices need to be part of the dialogue around innovation. Given the industry-accepted data point that 80 or so percent of care is dispensed in the primary care physician's office, small practices absolutely must be part of the transformation. Gerhart fears the trend of physicians ending up working for large IDNs. "I hope we find a way to preserve small practices," she said.
Besides her practice, Gerhart is a consultant for Maxwell IT, an EHR consulting firm that offers an EHR Best Practice Series for ambulatory practices. She helped develop data analytics tools for physicians for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI). So in addition to having been in the trenches of implementing an EHR system as a practicing physician, she has deep IT knowledge and an educator, which are skills very much in need as the industry transforms itself from a paper to a paperless world.
Meeting Stage 1 criteria will be difficult but not unattainable. There are things that physicians are already doing, including recording patient demographics and vital signs, she said. Providing clinical summaries for each office visit, however, is more challenging. But documentation and charting is undergoing an evolution, Gerhart said. Physicians need to create appropriate notes that are understandable for their patients. "We need to do this as a profession," she said.
While it is one of the criteria, physicians should be providing an electronic copy of their patients' health information for those who request it. If physicians can't deliver, the younger generation, who was born into the electronic world, will simply go to another physician who can deliver the goods. That's the imperative.
Gerhart described herself as a proponent of innovation and change. She doesn't want her fellow physicians to get lost in the face of disruptive technology. While she is worried about her peers, she is glad the industry is undergoing this transformation.
Her final thoughts: Keep the level of cooperation going, keep moving forward and be a part of the dialogue in what measures are being chosen.
At this crucial moment in the implementation stage of health IT across the industry, we need more physician champions with this level of passion and commitment.
Patty Enrado blogs daily at EHRWatch.com.
