Health system executives are beginning to recognize that EMRs are not a panacea, and are increasingly open to — and demanding of — new HIT solutions that solve high-priority problems while integrating with EMR technologies.
Sanjay Pathak, senior vice president of Consulting and Client Services at Kyruus in Boston: Two related issues we have found to be high priority are inappropriate referrals and poor patient access and scheduling operations. Operational and financial performance take a hit when we fail to match patients to the right provider during the referral and scheduling process. Without a purpose-built solution in place, physicians are saddled with appointments that don't take advantage of their unique skills, causing frustration, low productivity and burnout. Schedule utilization rates also tend to be highly uneven across large provider networks, leaving much opportunity for smarter use of capacity and resources. It's time for health systems to become more open-minded to the power of data-driven solutions that improve referral and scheduling workflows, while also engaging physicians and patients in the process. It's also time for them to demand their vendors to work together to make this a reality.