Workflow improvements for enhanced EHR functionality
Utilizing human factor workflow modeling tools, process mapping and goals-means decomposition, a recent report by the National Institute of Standards and Technology unearthed a number of insights on end-user needs to improve EHR workflow for clinicians in outpatient care settings.
The institute offered the following recommendations to improve workflow, with the goals of increasing efficiency, improving eye contact between physicians and patients, reducing alert fatigue and improving physician information workflow:
- At-a-glance overview displays to enable physicians to adapt patient schedules to smooth out predicted workload and better meet work-life balance objectives
- Support for remembering tasks to accomplish during a subsequent patient visit
- Redacting and summarizing laboratory results
- Drafting predicted orders one day before a patient's visit to reduce time to complete the orders during actual visit
- Supporting moving from initial working diagnoses to formal diagnoses
- Supporting dropping or delaying tasks under high workload conditions
- Supporting different views of a progress note based upon role
- Distinguishing new documentation in a progress note from copied information from a different progress note
- Supporting communication with specialist physicians about referrals and consultations
- Tracking scheduled consults and review of laboratory results
“These recommendations provide a first step in moving from a billing-centered perspective to a clinician-centered perspective where the EHR design supports clinical cognitive work, such as moving from an initial working diagnosis to a formal diagnosis for a complex patient,” wrote the authors. “These recommendations point the way towards a ‘patient visit management system,’ which incorporates broader notions of supporting workload management, and supporting the flexible flow of patients and tasks.”
Read the full report here.