Consulting with physician technology leaders is critical to ensuring the successful implementation of new technologies.
During an Oct. 7 panel at the Becker's HIT + RCM Virtual Event, three healthcare technology leaders discussed best practices for installing new technologies.
Participants included:
- Mitch Parker, chief information security officer at Indiana University Health in Indianapolis
- Gary Fritz, vice president, chief of applications, technology and digital solutions at Stanford (Calif.) Health Care and School of Medicine
- Nick Patel, MD, chief digital executive and vice chair for innovation and business affairs at Prisma Health in Greenville, S.C.
Below is an excerpt from that discussion. Click here to view the full panel on-demand as well as access other panels and interviews from the event.
Note: responses are lightly edited for style and clarity.
Question: How can health systems ensure that new technologies are implemented successfully and maximize clinician engagement?
Mr. Fritz: Physician burnout is very real. Part of the issue is the intense need to document and interact with the EHR, among other technologies. As you introduce new technologies, you may actually be losing ground rather than gaining ground. You have to be very thoughtful about the technologies you have and the new technologies you want to implement to make it easier to be a clinician. But it's also important to make it easier to be a patient and to do the support work to allow the physician-patient relationship to happen. We're working hard to optimize that by looking at physician time in chat, looking at clicks and talking to physicians about their experience. It's absolutely crucial that clinicians feel fulfilled in their role.
Dr. Patel: Don't start with the technology, start with the deep understanding of the problem you're trying to solve. It has to be patient-centered and provider-driven. One of the top three reasons for burnout for physicians is EHR. And the last thing you want to do is add layers and layers of different technology that is disjointed, disconnected, with multiple logins or multiple places to document all of these different things.
Mr. Parker: You have to be continual and intentional in how you deal with the leadership of your organization and setting expectations right at the start and making sure that you solve definite problems. Instead of saying, "this is a nice to have," [think about] what problems are you solving? How are you making it easier for a physician? And do you have CMIOs or physician technology leaders capable of articulating and translating between the clinical world and the technology world? My experience has been when you have strong technology leaders in place that are also physicians, it makes your job a lot easier because you focus on what's important with implementing the technology, cutting out the waste and focusing on the customer's needs.