You know that feeling you get when you replace your microwave oven, buy a bigger TV, or finally decide to get a new car? What you had was very good, and you were comfortable with it. But after a few days or weeks of the new model, you can’t believe what you were missing!

How EHR flexibility helps during life’s important moments

There are few things more complex than the world of healthcare. But look beyond all the talk about procedures, technology, workflows, rules, and reimbursements and you’ll find patients and providers who share a few simple goals: They want to maintain and restore health. They want to build personal relationships. And they want tools and technologies that support the caring that is the most important part of healthcare — for patients and providers alike.

Switching EHRs can be time-consuming and expensive, but practices continue to seek better healthcare IT. An EHR should provide comprehensive documentation, the latest interoperability, tools for Patient Engagement and Population Health, in-depth data analytics, tools that promote safety when trying to reduce the number of in-person visits, and effective Revenue Cycle Management.

Given how few EHRs meet all those criteria, it is not surprising that 62% of practices have switched EHRs at least once.

Where are the flying cars?

It’s 2020. We’re already well into the 21st century. By now, wasn’t artificial intelligence supposed to have given us flying cars, replicators to produce our favorite foods on demand, and a society in which everyone enjoyed luxury, ease, and good health?

So, your practice has been doing well. You’ve got more patients, happy clients, and superb care. As your practice continues to grow, it’s fair to question whether or not your current EHR is capable of providing you with the tools and help necessary for a smooth transition.

Communication & Connectivity

With value-based care the new standard in medicine, attention is increasingly focused on what healthcare organizations can do to improve Patient Engagement. A clear strategy for retaining patients and attracting new ones is a key part of delivering consistent, quality care. 

An outstanding EHR is essential but not enough. Providers today must respond to patients’ demands for convenience and access — including online portals and telemedicine. 

Successful engagement comes from a commitment to clear, effective communication. That requires paying attention to the technological and human sides of the patient encounter. 

If asked what a healthcare revolution looks like, many people might say sweeping legislative reforms, new technologies, and breakthrough cures for cancer. 

But most revolutions look nothing like that. Instead, they develop over time, shaped by long-term societal trends and changing consumer demands and expectations. 

The rise of urgent care centers in the U.S. is an example. From modest beginnings in the 1970s, the growth of urgent care has accelerated from steady to extraordinary. A 2017 report by MarketsandMarkets™ estimates that the value of the U.S. urgent care market will reach $16 billion by 2023. 

At Palmer College of Chiropractic, our mission is to promote learning, deliver healthcare, engage our communities, and advance knowledge through research. We are the first and largest chiropractic college, with more than 2,000 students and 158 faculty members, across 10 clinics. Our academic program is designed to blend theory with hands-on clinical skills designed to prepare our students for success.

As the only full-service healthcare facility for a 100-mile stretch of California’s Central Coast, Big Sur Health Center has to be prepared for the expected, the unexpected and everything in between. For all its natural splendor, Big Sur is also a land of danger, with wildfires, torrential rains, and constant threat of earthquakes.

In 2008, the Basin Complex Fire burned over 130,000 acres, forcing the evacuation of most of the community. We quickly put all our medical and financial records into boxes ready to move to a safe location. Later, when we were debriefing, we asked ourselves: What would have worked better? What is our number one priority in upgrading our emergency preparedness plan? We concluded an Electronic Medical Record System was the answer.

For today’s busy physicians, finding ways to speed workflows without sacrificing accurate, quality care is critical to meeting the needs of their patients. According to a July 2018 study of U.S. physicians conducted by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine, 55 percent reported symptoms of burnout. The study found that physician burnout is as important a factor in medical errors as unsafe medical workplace conditions — if not more so.

The thousands of eClinicalWorks customers who came to Nashville this weekend expected to hear about improvements to the core EHR, see some new products and services, renew friendships, and have some fun.

Starting (and Staying) Small in Michigan

According to the numbers, small and independent medical practices are headed for extinction. But in Marquette, Michigan — on the shores of Lake Superior in the Upper Peninsula — the husband and wife team of Dr. Christopher Dehlin and Dr. Jennifer Dehlin are demonstrating that there’s a place for smaller medicine, even in an age of consolidation and managed care.

Great Work on the Great Plains

They say that in business, as in life, you can’t do everything. You can’t have it all. But sometimes, just trying works out pretty well. That’s the case at Brown Clinic in Watertown, South Dakota, where staff have demonstrated that being a relatively small medical practice doesn’t mean you have to limit what you offer — or the healthcare IT expertise you can develop.

Can interoperability defeat the asymmetry beast?

In healthcare IT, the problem isn’t too much data — providers want to know everything they can about individual patients and patient populations — but how to make sense of it all. For many years, medical professionals have devoted countless hours and legions of people to sorting and sifting medical records.