A healthcare system with facilities in California, Texas, and New Mexico successfully addressed the drop in productivity and clinician satisfaction that can come with the introduction of a new EMR.
An investigation revealed that the new EMR was only part of the problem, says Shannon Sims, MD, PhD, chief analytics officer with Vizient, a healthcare performance improvement company based in Irving, TX. The EMR shook things up enough that other long-simmering problems came to the surface.
The upset from the new EMR actually created an opportunity to improve multiple processes in the health system, Sims says.
Clinical utilization was not standardized, and clinicians were charting in multiple locations. The health system used the new EMR to help standardize care, eliminating at least 50 clicks and 12 to 18 minutes per patient chart.
In the end, the health system reduced door-to-physician time up to 50% and length of stay up to 20% in half of the system’s facilities.
(The case study is featured in a Vizient white paper, available online at: https://bit.ly/2H0xTPV.)
