Physicians Practice - July/August 2008 - (Page 53)

TECHNOLOGY DO EMRs MAKE YOU A BETTER DOCTOR? BY BARBARA A. GABRIEL NEW RESEARCH IS RAISING QUESTIONS ABOUT WHETHER EMRs IMPROVE PATIENT OUTCOMES. WHAT’S THE REAL STORY? Does having an EMR really help you? Are patients more likely to get the tests they need, timely diagnoses, and proper treatments? Do you code more accurately now that your EMR is a part of your daily work ﬂow? Does this result in higher reimbursements? In short, are you a better doctor — both clinically and operationally — with an EMR than you were without one? It was questions like these that Jeffrey Linder, an internist and an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, tried to answer as he assessed the results of his study on the relationship between EMR usage and quality care. A well- IN SUMMARY Concrete data that directly links EMR usage with improved patient outcomes can most likely be found in practices that take full advantage of their EMR’s capabilities and work with patients as team members to oversee their care: • Since many EMR adopters use only their software’s most basic functions, they are less able to prove a causal relationship between EMR usage and better patient care. • While published research reveals conflicting results, most experts agree that EMRs should be an intrinsic part of physician-patient interactions to realize better outcomes. from your physicians, the rest of your staff, and your patients. • For true success, you’ll need buy-in known advocate for EMR implementation, he felt pretty conﬁdent the answer to all these questions would be a resounding yes. He and his team investigated the relationship between EMRs and the quality of patient care in physician practices across the U.S. by scrutinizing the CDC’s 2003 and 2004 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS). This survey asked practices if their visits were performed in ofﬁces equipped with EMRs (or EHR, as Linder and many others call the systems; the terms are interchangeable). Eighteen percent of respondents indicated that they did. Linder’s team then compared the response to that question to 17 quality measures, including management of chronic diseases, preventive disease, treating acute problems, and avoiding inappropriate medication prescribing in the elderly, to name a few. And what did they ﬁnd? “Essentially there was no association between people saying they use EHRs and those 17 different quality measures.” No association? How could this be in the wake of so much hype touting the efﬁcacy of electronic records in enhancing patient care — particularly among those suffering from chronic illnesses? Disappointing, says Linder. However, upon further reﬂection — and in the wake of the barrage of media attention that followed the study’s publication in the July 2007 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine — he admits the results really aren’t all that surprising. He names two pivotal caveats: First, the NAMCS data — the best data pool available to Linder and his team, both in terms of size and currency — was, from a technology perspective, woefully outdated. Second, the survey simply asked physiJULY/AUGUST 2008 | PHYSICIANS PRACTICE | WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM 53 http://WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Physicians Practice - July/August 2008

Physicians Practice - July/August 2008 Contents The Bigger Picture: Battle Royale in the EMR Market Letters Physicians Practice Pearls: Hire Right Noteworthy Cover Story: Healthcare Reform: Voting for Change Patient Relations: Dealing with Problem Patients The tech Doctor: Is Self-Service Medicine Inevitable? Technology: Do EMRs Make You a Better Doctor? The Guide Idealab: Cash-Only Care Still Works The Administrators Desk: Who’s in Charge? Ask The Experts What Went Wrong: ‘Why Our Great Idea Didn’t Work’ Coding Start It Up: How to Launch a Practice: Operations Partnership: Don't Let Partner Conflict Destroy Your Practice Appraisals: What’s Your Practice Worth? Getting Advice: How to Hire a Consultant Classifieds Advertiser Index

Physicians Practice - July/August 2008

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