Your practice can reclaim lost time and invest it instead with EHR workflow analysis and efficiency-boosting strategies such as software training and smart hardware choices. Keep reading for a three-part strategy for EHR workflow analysis. The length of an average patient appointment at the moment is 15 minutes long, and the length of the average clinical workflow in an electronic health record is just over 16 minutes long. You’re sure to find similar results if you do a workflow analysis at your clinic.
EHR solutions are often criticized for being difficult to use, requiring too many clicks and work to get to where the clinician wants to go. Those already charting at home after hours lose time on this account. Healthcare professionals can change how they work in their EHR and use integrated practice management and patient engagement tools to shift the burden back to software where it belongs.
By examining the workflow of an EHR system and employing supporting strategies such as software training and smart hardware choices, you can save time and invest it instead. Keep reading for a three-part strategy for analyzing EHR workflow and boosting efficiency at your practice.
Team Up To Establish EHR Long-Term Goals
Before addressing efficiency issues, all stakeholder’s leadership, clinicians, and support staff must first communicate their priorities and establish common goals. Which needs are still unmet? What do stakeholders want or need from the EHR? It’s important to ask these questions in your EHR workflow analysis.
It is critical for members of a team to describe the burdensome procedures and tasks in detail so that they are clearly understood by other team members. Typically, the usability problems may be global or specific to the patient’s preferences. In some locations, clinicians may find procedures cumbersome, but for other stakeholders, those procedures may prove to be an advantage. In a team-based setting, it is vital to identify where changes are necessary and feasible.
It is also an excellent moment to discuss any informal system workarounds that clinicians may have adopted in response to EHR workflow blocks. A 2020 Annals of Internal Medicine study found that workarounds can jeopardize patient safety and impede accurate data collection. In addition to being inelegant, workarounds can disrupt accurate data collection and potentially put patients at risk. Analytics can provide valuable additional insights into key performance indicators and more granular details on how inefficient workflows and informal workarounds might impact the overall health of the practice.
Software and Hardware Solutions can be identified.
Hucu.ai HIPAA compliant Telehealth solution, built its platform to accommodate varied clinician needs by providing individualized workflow modifications or modifying the system to meet the needs and preferences of a particular clinician. Regardless of how these changes scale, all users should understand the intended outcomes.
Patients can enjoy a seamless experience using patient portals, e-prescribing, and electronic pre-authorizations, all of which can save time and money. With a patient portal, care teams no longer have to spend time responding to patients’ messages. Electronic patient intake software can significantly improve front office workflows for in-person or telehealth appointments by collecting patients’ information electronically. If your paper forms still need to be entered manually, patient intake software can greatly improve your patient intake process.
A look at EHR workflow redesign
Mapping out existing workflows to understand how your organization accomplishes tasks is referred to as EHR workflow redesign. It may also include identifying how EHRs might assist in boosting efficiency and quality of care. These advantages are maximizing efficiencies, enhancing healthcare quality, and safety, improvement to care coordination, and avoidance of chaotic workflows.
Long-Term Success is Dependent on Strategies
Hucu.ai’s HIPPA-compliant Telehealth solution support center provides product-specific and role-specific online training modules to help users develop new skills or brush up on old ones. Whatever the objective, regular training is a crucial tool.
It’s preferable to develop a long-term strategy to improve EHR usage and staff efficiency rather than make frequent adjustments. Small changes are easier to implement than a complete overhaul and less stressful for clinicians and employees.
Physicians are trained to alter their recommendations to match the most up-to-date knowledge. Even though a solution is thought to be the best currently available, the same technology solution might not be beneficial a few years down the line. But if they have a method to measure needs and make alterations, healthcare facilities may continue to adapt to the present.
Review of an EHR Workflow
Non-intuitive workflows and time-consuming actions are not required with EHR software, which simple, versatile interface that physicians can utilize to save time. You may also benefit from integrated tools and investment in additional hardware and software. With a long-term plan for continued success, you can make sustainable and profitable EHR workflow changes.
Hucu.ai is a FREE HIPAA-compliant patient-centered messaging network, with real-time patient health and staff attrition risk reporting. Hucu.ai customers streamline professional communications within our easy-to-use app, receiving push notifications when colleagues tag them for immediate delivery. Hucu.ai Honors are awarded to recognize collaborators going above and beyond and collaborating effectively with their teammates. Patient risk flags including Covid-19 specific flags enable organizations to stay ahead of patient risks and assure quality care. Hucu.ai is an invaluable support to building a positive and compliant patient-centered culture. Hucu.ai is integrated with EHR and built Hucu.ai to integrate based on established healthcare standards like HL7 and/or APIs.
