EHRs: Where do we go from here?

Mary Stevens, Editor, CMIO

Compliance with meaningful use measures won’t necessarily maximize hospitals’ quality improvement efforts, according to an article in the July issue of The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety. As ONC officials and others have said before, meaningful use is intended to be the floor, not the ceiling, in terms of health IT adoption and use. But should we be asking EHRs (and vendors) to do more than the basics?

As federal agencies mull this question in the context of health IT adoption nationwide, they should note that Canada might have good advice—or at least tips for avoiding pitfalls, according to research published online in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.

Although Canadian and U.S. health IT policy approaches differ, there are also similarities: Setting national standards and infrastructure to enable country-wide data sharing is something both nations have strived to do. “The advantage of being able to look back and explore the outcomes of the Canadian approach may carry important implications that can be applied to the current U.S. plan,” the researchers concluded. In interviews, Canadian health IT stakeholders urged the U.S. to engage providers early and support change management—which the Canadian government did not do adequately, according to the study.

Patient engagement in the EHR transition process may help speed adoption, or at least let physicians know what patient concerns are. And what do patients want? They want more assurance that their personal medical information will be secure as organizations migrate to EHRs, said an online survey of 2,720 U.S. adults, administrated by Harris Interactive.

Nearly 80 percent of respondents who have concerns about digital medical records indicated stolen personal information by a computer hacker to be their number one worry, the survey found. The threat of lost, damaged or corrupted records was named by 64 percent and the misuse of information, by 62 percent.

Respondents are still unclear on how EHRs will affect them. Only 18 percent of U.S. adults who have a healthcare provider said they have been approached by their provider to discuss EHRs, the survey said.

Finally, a commentary earlier this month in the Journal of the American Medical Association stated that tying EHR certification to proof of compliance with the Joint Commission’s National Patient Safety Goals would jump-start EHR-based patient safety efforts. Do you believe doing so would benefit patient safety or lead to wider use of EHRs? Let me know at mstevens@trimedmedia.com

Mary Stevens, Editor