Who doesn't like to expose urban myths? In the case of EHRs, stripping away falsehoods will serve the healthcare industry well.
There is so much at stake for too many stakeholders at this critical junction to not strike down misinformation when we see it. At the 82nd annual AHIMA conference and exposition this week, Ann Meehan and Julia Kendrick of Nashville's Ardent Health Services exposed 10 urban myths.
Some are no-brainers, but they still need to be called out.
"Broken HIM processes are resolved in an EHR automatically." You know how they say that in real estate, it's all about "location, location, location?" Well, if you want to be more efficient in your processes, you have to have an efficient process in place before automating it. So, long before you even find an EHR to implement, you need to create a workflow process that makes sense and everyone buys into.
"Record storage is now a thing of the past." Eventually. For now, providers must keep records for a certain amount of time, not just for patient care but for both legal and regulatory reasons. One bridge is to implement an enterprise content management system that an IS department can - over time - scan paper documents into the EHR system. This is obviously a labor-intensive process, but it will eliminate record storage at some point and there are definitely efficiencies and cost savings in the elimination.
"EHRs will translate into immediate staff reductions." This is not necessarily true across the board or even desirable. Oftentimes, staff can be relieved of menial administrative tasks and put in charge of higher-value tasks, which can result in a rise in employee satisfaction and better deployment of human resources. Automation doesn't always mean lay-offs. You shouldn't just plan on working with your EHR vendor to determine what to expect in terms of staff reductions. Really think through how adopting health IT helps in the smart and efficient deployment of human resources.
What other urban myths has your health system or physician office encountered? Share them with us at EHRWatch.com.
Photo by nimbu via Creative Commons license.
