This article and video interview were originally published on Healthcare IT Today “EMR Optimization is a Continuous Process”.
North Country HealthCare is a highly rated clinical provider running three critical access hospitals in northern New Hampshire. In this video, their CIO Darrell Bodnar describes their on-going efforts to optimize and integrate a new EMR. They have a long-term relationship with tech consulting firm CereCore, represented in this video by Bob Gronberg, their AVP MEDITECH Professional Services.
When it comes to EHR go-lives and optimization, it’s hard to reproduce quickly all the features of the previous EMR during an EMR go-live and new features keep coming. Feature lists are too long, so the governance committee has to prioritize what to implement and optimize next. Gronberg warns that many organizations implement “base components” with the intention of coming back later to add more—but actually never do so. Thus, both he and Bodnar say that optimization is an on-going process.
On the other hand, poor workflows from a previous system should not be incorporated into a new EMR. Bodnar says that North Country HealthCare reviewed every technology before incorporating it. As they consolidated five EMRs into one, they realized that their practices weren’t standardized. CereCore was valuable at bringing in best practices and at suggesting which features could be useful.
Both Bodnar and Gronberg reported on the importance of documentation. Bodnar admitted that their subject matter experts have local perspectives and leave a knowledge gap when they depart the hospital. This is why bringing in outside expertise with a broader perspective was helpful. Gronberg said that a key early step in a migration is document “who does what” and make sure all the relevant staff are represented.
Watch the video for more information on involving end-users in technology decisions, how technologies change workflow and clinical practice, and CereCore’s status as a MEDITECH Alliance partner.
