Expert insights on EHR optimization with Christina Berg, RN MHA
The Electronic Health Record (EHR) is a critical tool for healthcare organizations, but maximizing its value requires careful consideration of user adoption.
Whether you're adding capabilities, scaling the system, getting back to basics , or migrating to a new EHR, optimizing its usability, security, and efficiency is essential. Let’s explore five key strategies to help you optimize your EHR investment and ensure its success.
- Provide Fast and Secure Access to the EHR
One of the primary challenges organizations face with their EHR is ensuring that users have fast and secure access to the system. By leveraging strategic solutions that balance easy access and strong security, healthcare organizations can reduce clinician burnout, boost productivity, and support better patient outcomes. Engaging with clinicians up front to understand their workflow challenges and collaborating on solutions is crucial. Implementing streamlined access management and frictionless authentication solutions, such as single sign-on and proximity cards, can significantly improve EHR access while enhancing security. - Support Reauthentication and Electronic Prescribing Workflows
Certain workflows within the EHR, such as witnessing, reauthentication, and electronic prescribing of controlled substances, require special attention to ensure compliance and efficiency. By integrating facial recognition as a second factor of authentication in the electronic prescribing process, clinicians can securely and conveniently authenticate their identity when prescribing medications. This eliminates the need for manual logins or authentication methods, saving time and reducing the risk of errors. Facial recognition technology can also enhance security by ensuring that only authorized clinicians can access and prescribe medications. By streamlining electronic prescribing workflows with facial recognition, healthcare organizations can enhance medication safety, reduce administrative burden, and improve the overall prescribing process to drive more value from the EHR. - Optimize Mobile EHR Applications for Bedside Care
Clinicians need the ability to access patient records and update information directly at the bedside to provide seamless, personalized, and efficient care. By extending the capabilities of the EHR to mobile devices, clinicians can remain with the patient throughout their visit, eliminating the need to walk back and forth to a stationary desktop computer. This not only improves patient satisfaction but also reduces delays in care and contributes to clinician satisfaction. Involving clinicians early in the mobility discussion will assist with adoption of these tools. Implementing secure and accessible mobile tools that extend the power of the EHR to the bedside is crucial for optimizing the system. - Reduce Patient Misidentification with Facial Biometrics
Patient misidentification is a significant challenge in healthcare that can lead to medical errors, compromised patient safety, and inefficiencies in care delivery. Implementing facial biometrics as a method of patient identification can help address this issue and optimize the EHR system. Facial recognition technology allows healthcare providers to identify patients accurately and efficiently, mitigating the risk of misidentification and medical errors. By integrating facial biometrics into the EHR system, organizations can enhance data security, protect patient privacy, and reduce duplicate records. This technology accommodates various physical attributes like medical masks, glasses, and hats, making it a seamless and user-friendly solution. By leveraging facial biometrics, healthcare organizations can optimize patient identification accuracy, improve patient safety, and streamline care delivery processes. - Continuously Evaluate and Improve:
EHR optimization is an ongoing process. It is crucial to continuously evaluate the system's performance, gather user feedback, and make necessary improvements. Regularly engaging with clinicians and involving them in the optimization process will help identify areas for enhancement and ensure that the EHR remains aligned with evolving user needs and industry standards. By staying proactive and responsive to user feedback, organizations can maximize their EHR investment and drive continuous improvement in patient care.
Optimizing your EHR investment requires a strategic approach that prioritizes user adoption, usability, security, and efficiency. By providing fast and secure access, supporting critical workflows, optimizing mobile applications, enhancing patient identification, and continuously evaluating and improving the system, healthcare organizations can maximize the value of their EHR investment. Engaging with clinicians and involving them in the optimization process is key to ensuring a successful implementation and long-term success. To learn more about EHR optimization, register for this webinar.
Christina Berg, RN MHA, is the Director of Strategic Partnerships at Imprivata. To learn more about Imprivata, visit http://www.imprivata.com.