The current state of the electronic medical record (EMR) at my organization feels like being in an old hospital complex which has clearly been built up over the course of decades; room numbers are not necessarily logical or in sequence, buildings connect on different floors, and most elevators do not actually go all the way from the bottom to the top of each building.
Our current EMR “system” has sprung up over the course of several decades, as each area serially sprung for the system that best met their needs. Interfaces were partial or non-existent, and most single users did not have access to over half of the systems on campus. The result was a dizzying complex of EMRs that few users knew how to fully navigate. So now my organization, like so many others, decided to raise the white flag, spend an enormous sum of cash, and buy a single enterprise EMR.
After innumerable meetings about content, workflow, prioritization, training, super-users, downtime operations, optimization, cut-overs, and reports, we are 14 days until it goes live. No new requests can be accommodated, and all build is “complete.” These next 2 weeks will be like sitting on an egg, and hoping the chicken inside has all of its chromosomes intact…
I’m interested to know what to expect: please share your EMR go-live experiences!
Unfortunately, most EHRs (Cerner, Meditech, etal) are replicants of the paper record….there is a module for physician’s notes, Physical therapy, nursing, dietary, etc. It is very provider-specific. I haven’t come across a patient-center EHR – where any member of the patient’s healthcare team can open the record and quickly (and easily) view a linear view of the patient’s progression-of-care. We are still thinking in terms of siloes and what works best for ME as opposed to the patient. Having said that, I understand that some of the vendors are starting to make changes so that a chronological review of provider interventions (and patient responses) can be accessed….but I haven’t seen it personally….yet. Good luck