One health IT professional says EHR systems and its tools have been vital to stopping the spread of the coronavirus.
At the onset of the spread of the coronavirus, some believed EHR systems would get exposed or be a burden, rather than an asset, to patient care. But as the outbreak continues, Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council, said that EHR systems have been more of an asset, than a burden.
In an op-ed written on the Wisconsin State Journal, Still explained how EHRs and embedded telehealth technology are an aid to clinicians as they attempt to decrease the spread of the coronavirus by testing and managing patients who have contracted the virus.
With the Epic Systems campus residing in Wisconsin, Still has the benefit of seeing the positive impact that EHRs may have on health systems. He said the state is up to 10 percentage points higher than the national average for EHR adoption by patients, health facilities, and health systems.
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Sam Butler, a physician in Wisconsin, described to Still that an EHR is the “central nervous system” of a health system because of how quickly it can trigger a response when it’s needed most.
During the spread of the coronavirus, telehealth implementation has skyrocketed. According to Still, Epic Systems has helped over 200 of its clients implement a telehealth system in less than a month.
“One such rapid response is telemedicine, which was a remote curiosity for most patients — and even some practitioners — until COVID-19 hit,” Still said. “Today, millions of consultations are taking place virtually, many of them on Epic platforms that were underused in the past.”
Compared to just single-digit percentages less than a month ago, more than half of primary care visits are being done virtually, he said.
“Through telehealth, we’re seeing patients in their homes, meeting their families, seeing the art on their walls, learning about the things they care about most… I thought telehealth would remove the human aspect, but it actually enhanced it,” an anonymous Pennsylvania physician said to Still.
Telehealth services in Epic’s patient portal has also eased the overcrowding in hospitals, Still remarked. If a patient has the ability to get triaged at home, that is one less patient that has to be seen in person.
EHR systems have also been optimized during this outbreak to identify COVID-19 trends and potential cases, while aiming to limit the spread of the virus by measuring the number of beds being used.
“An organization or state can zoom out to see trends in testing, including where testing is ramping up or turn-around time for tests that could be improved,” said Seth Hain, also a senior vice president for research and development at Epic.
Still used the two recently built field hospitals, the Javits Center in New York City and Chicago’s McCormick Place Convention Center, as prime examples of how a vendor has helped get both hospitals up and running with technology and patient data exchange.
On the other hand, Eric Perakslis, PhD, and Erich Huang, MD, said in early March that the pandemic would be a major stress test for EHRs because of the lack of function and usability.
EHRs are designed to track and bill, rather than provide optimal patient care, the two explained.
Patient data is not always easily assessible in one place, which makes it difficult and burdensome for clinicians, especially in a time of crisis.
“One is the lack of a cohesive data model for patients in most electronic health records — an intuitively patient-centric construct that allows clinicians to start with a patient and trace back to their signs, symptoms, and diagnostic tests,” explained Perakslis and Huang.
“The other is whether tightly focused health apps represent an opportunity to streamline patient evaluation, triage, and other essential functions that may be too burdensome within current EHR workflows,” they continued. “Fit-for-purpose health apps may also assist with interoperability, another well-known weakness within our health information technology infrastructure.”
Optimized interoperability was another sticking point for Perakslis and Huang, who argued that limited health data exchange could stall efforts to treat patients.
But according to Still, those concerns may have been assuaged.
“There are limits, of course, on who can access virtual medicine and when — sometimes tied to the ‘digital divide’ or economic hardship,” Still concluded. “For many people, however, electronic health tools may be a way to fight back against COVID-19.”
Source: EHR Intelligence