Many hospitals and physician offices are beginning to embark on the journey to implement and derive meaningful use out of EHRs. The Beacon communities will demonstrate how health IT can improve clinical outcomes, drive efficiencies and increase patient safety. Early adopters of EMRs and EHRs will also serve as role models in terms of where to find value and ROI. There has to be a business case for any IT investment, and finding multiple business cases for EHRs will only increase adoption.
In 2001, Kaiser Permanente created a Total Joint Replacement Registry, which is the largest registry of its kind in the country, with more than 100,000 joint replacement cases completed by more than 350 Kaiser Permanente surgeons nationwide. Data for the registry is aggregated from Kaiser’s standardized forms and its EHR, KP HealthConnect.
The registry enables healthcare providers to employ best practices, weigh risk factors associated with revision surgeries and determine implant effectiveness. The data collected includes patient demographics, implant characteristics and surgical techniques related to post-operative complications.
Here's another value add from the registry: Healthcare providers can identify and notify patients about recalled or defective implants before the manufacturer's official recall notice. To date, the registry was responsible for flagging more than 15 implant advisories and concerns in 2009.
There's power in the data, and that data could not have been extracted in real time had it not been collected in KP HealthConnect. The data had to be electronic, especially in order for patients to be notified about recalled or defective implants.
It's going to take success stories like the Kaiser Permanente Total Joint Replacement Registry that prove EHRs are valuable in increasing patient safety, improving clinical outcomes and saving money through best practices and implant effectiveness.
Photo via mikebaird courtesy of Creative Commons license.
