The central dogma of Electronic Health Records (EHRs)

Why Electronic Health Records ?

In the avant-garde healthcare delivery trend, the utilization of electronic health records (EHR) has become a mandatory. Even federal policies like HITECH (The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health) Act and HIPAA (The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) are accentuating the adoption of electronic systems. The key underpinning rationale behind this emphasis is to provide quality patient care through:

• Precise and absolute patient health information storage.
• Rapid care delivery.
• Improved care-coordination.
• Easy patient information exchange between patients and caregivers.

EHR – The Central Dogma

          In an endeavor to reward the hospitals and other healthcare providers who meet the federal standards of healthcare delivery, ‘meaningful use incentives’ have been proclaimed. The HITECH Act permits the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to pay incentives for the providers who effectively adopt the EHR system. Thus, EHRs have become the central fragment of the U.S. healthcare reform.

In a recent survey conducted by the ‘National Center for Health Statistics’:

• 78 percent of physician offices used EHR in 2013, whereas in 2001 it was only 18 percent.
• Among the current EHR users, only 69 percent are interested to partake in the “meaningful use” incentive program.
• 13 percent of the office-based physicians are well-eligible and ready to receive the meaningful use incentives in 2014.

Another study conducted by ‘Physicians Practice’ with more than 1,200 physicians revealed the following data:

• Workflow: 57 percent of the physicians said that EHR has improved their practice’s workflow, while 26 said that it has made the workflow worse. 17 percent said that they didn’t observe any change in their workflow pattern.
• Return on Investment (ROI) of EHR: 43 percent said they have enjoyed the returns from EHR investment and 57 percent said that their EHR investment went in vain.

A study report published in the ‘Journal Medical Care’ with the participation of 55 regional extension centers depicted that:

There are two major hurdles in the meaningful use accomplishment:

• Provider engagement.
• Intricacy to single out an EHR system.

The Proof of the Pudding

Despite some rumors like ‘EHR is a redundant addition to the current healthcare system’, ‘meaningful use accomplishment is impossible’, etc., there are also some exemplars!

“Nashville-based Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), the nation’s most money-spinning hospital chain, pocketed $75 million EHR incentive in the 3^rd quarter of 2013.”

Thus, EHR espousal is beneficial for the physicians, patients, payers and other healthcare stakeholders to make healthcare delivery accurate, faster and lucrative.