Stanford Medicine in California released a white paper on the future of EHRs, recommending key action items medical practices, payers, regulators and technologists should consider to improve the technology within the next decade.
Stanford Medicine curated its white paper with input from industry experts who attended the health system's EHR National Symposium this past June, along with responses from hundreds of physicians who participated in a survey the organization conducted with The Harris Poll. Altogether, the white paper aims to examine how to "transform EHRs from an administrative burden into a useful sidekick."
Here are 11 steps Stanford Medicine outlined for medical practices to take to improve EHRs by 2028:
1. Invest in EHR training when onboarding physicians and when incremental changes are made to the system
2. Enlist physicians to help prioritize EHR development tasks and to design clinical workflows that build on EHR capabilities
3. Tailor the composition of physician development teams, such as what clinical resources are available
4. Deliver EHR development projects soon after physicians ask for them
5. Establish an EHR governance process that gives the organization flexibility when responding to health emergencies and crises
6. Make analytics data available to physicians at the point-of-care
7. Transition non-essential EHR data entry to ancillary staff, potentially by increasing the number of digital scribes or seeking automated tools to eliminate manual documentation
8. Re-evaluate the organization's interpretation of privacy rules
9. Create opportunities for patients to maintain their records online
10. Replace the fax machine with electronic communications
11. Accept electronic payments
To download Stanford Medicine's white paper, click here.