Physicians Practice - July/August 2008 - (Page 56)

TECHNOLOGY the ongoing communication of data with the patient, empowering the patient to engage with real data in real time and then getting that patient really interested through measuring themselves at home.” Sarasohn-Kahn says that for outcomes to be truly optimal, your patients should be able to: • Access their data from your EMR — Lab reports, target weight, cholesterol/triglyceride numbers, other relevant stats; • Send measurements back to the ofﬁce — Blood glucose levels, daily weight, blood pressure, etc. This sort of involvement, where your patient becomes an active partner in his own care, can work with your EMR to improve patient-care outcomes. THE INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE Linder says he began ﬁelding phone calls from EMR vendors a week after his study was published. One of those callers was Hugh Zettel, director of government and industry relations at GE Healthcare and vice chair of Healthcare Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS). Zettel concurs that the data used for Linder’s study was essentially obsolete. He also notes another shift in the EMR paradigm; namely, what is the deﬁnition of an EMR, and how has it changed since 2003? “When the NAMSC asked its question about EHR use, there wasn’t a lot of speciﬁcity regarding what an EHR was,” says Zettel. “Depending on how a physician answered it, they could have been talking about their practice management system instead of an EHR.” Certainly, the impact of a practice management system on patient outcomes would be different from an EMR’s impact. Zettel also says that the accepted understanding of what constitutes “quality care” today has undergone a sea change over the past five years. In 2003, he says, quality care was defined by: • Entering patient data accurately; • Not losing charts or other patient records; and • Integrating lab and prescription information into single records. “Those are … aspects of quality that are important,” says Zettel, “but now our expectations of quality are a lot higher. Today we know that quality means doing a better job of measuring outcomes, looking at a patient’s care longitudinally, and working in an active partnership with patients to help manage their care. No one was even thinking about that back in 2003.” “There’s the old saying that the fool with a tool is still a fool,” he adds. “When you’re implementing an EHR or any sort of healthcare IT application, you’re really transforming the way you practice medicine.” Zettel likens this to embarking on a journey with the understanding that “your success depends on whether you have the buy-in of everyone on your practice team.” Sarasohn-Kahn agrees. Without team effort, she says, even the most top-of-the-line EMRs won’t accomplish a thing. “The EHR is necessary,” she says, “but it’s not sufﬁcient.” Just like everything else in life, you must take time to fully master this potentially invaluable piece of software. After that, tell the researchers to bring it on, says Lamberts. “With a good EMR, you set the bar and we can reach it.” • Barbara A. Gabriel has served as editor and writer for numerous healthcare publications over the past 10 years. Want to comment on this article? Please e-mail editor@physicianspractice.com. 56 | PHYSICIANS PRACTICE | JULY/AUGUST 2008 WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM http://www.amazingcharts.com http://www.amazingcharts.com 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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