Opinion Piece: Providers - Computers - Patients (Technology Wall in Healthcare)

Opinion

EHR (Electronic Health Records) documentation is one of the critical components of today’s medical field. It helps capture and organize the patient’s data electronically. Yet the knowledge related to EHR is not fully clear and their impact is adversely seen due to dampening doctor-patient relationship with increase screen time. There always been a hope that the EHR system would increase the time providers spend with patients. The aim of this article is to provide insights to save time in front of computers for doctors. Saving time includes better training to the providers, strong software and hardware infrastructure, revisiting good practices to improve efficiency and finally, effective EHR data capturing.

A better eye-contact, visibly see the patient’s non- verbal communication and behavior is been key in establishing that key trust and the patient-provider relationship. Providing the capability of roaming device will save time and rotation of the device to make sure eye contact maintained is also key. Avoid duplication of data entry will also save the time for examples medications and other ROS entered by other care team members can be utilized towards provider documentation. Using standardized note templates especially problem-oriented, evidence-based templates promotes standardization and organized approach to the complexity of patient care. Increasing the training time for Providers and also the repetition of the training with system upgrades will improve efficiencies. Having IT (Information Technology) support staff available round the clock and easy access Venkatraman P. Opinion Piece: Providers - Computers - Patients (Technology Wall in Healthcare). Anaesth Critic Care Med J 2019, 4(2): 000153.

Opinion

will help to build the trust between the IT department and providers.

Some places argue about widescreen monitors but I personally feel this is dependent on the type of EHR. Epic known for its cluttered look can definitely benefit with big monitors that many not assure efficiency if providers did not get enough training with navigation and customization for their needs. Depending on the departments it may be reasonable to argue procedure based ones and dealing with two different electronic systems for reporting will benefit from double screens. Integrating multiple systems using APIs is better than having multiple screens. (Software vs Hardware). Developing mobile device compatible tools is one of the most important thing organizations need to think about looking into the future given the new technologies even moving towards wearable’s and fluid interaction of interface. Single sign-on feature proven to be highly efficient as it would save the physician's time saving against providing the same credentials in multiple places. Last but not least, voice-assisted note documentation is catching up and doing very well in saving time and improving efficiency. Data supports these tools when utilized well can be more efficient than scribes.

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