Many health care providers have been excited about the potential capabilities of electronic health records and associated patient portals, which help improve patient engagement and empowerment. However, sometimes the actual use of these systems falls short of providers' expectations and cause issues with workflows.
Patient portals lagging for physicians
According to HIMSS Analytics, the slow implementation rates of advanced patient portals is among the top issues for the health care industry in 2015. EHRIntelligence explained that this presents an even mix of obstacles and opportunities for stakeholders as providers move forward with reforms that encourage patient engagement, personalized care and improved clinical outcomes.
Engagement has become the future of health care, but few providers have adopted patient portals that truly facilitate fluid and secure communication with patients. Roughly 62 percent of hospitals actively use portals, yet only 23 percent actually allow patients to review their own EHRs or lab results. This lack of functionality does little to encourage people to visit the portal site regularly, which could lead to significant issues with meeting the engagement requirements of Stage 2 Meaningful Use.
The bright side of the HIMSS report was that telehealth is on the to-do list for many health organizations. Nearly half of the respondents have adopted four different telehealth technologies, including two-way video conferencing. Moving forward, more providers may look to mobile devices as an easier method for coordinating care and boosting clinical efficiencies.
Pediatricians' EHR use increases despite issues with systems
A new study, published in the journal Pediatrics, revealed that more pediatricians are adopting EHR software than ever before, but many of the platforms lack functionalities geared toward their specialty, FierceEMR reported.
Researchers from Vanderbilt University distributed questionnaires to more than 1,600 doctors, inquiring about EHR use and optimization. They found that from 2009 to 2012, EHR use rose from 58 percent to 79 percent. However, only 14 percent used systems that were fully functional. The majority of platforms lacked pediatric capabilities, such as weight-based dosing and anthropometric analysis.
"Lack of pediatric functionality requires that pediatricians perform tasks outside the EHR or develop workarounds adding to workload and reducing productivity and efficiency," wrote the researchers, quoted byFierceEMR.
EHRs can help improve the health of children, but without pediatric-specific functionalities, practices have hit a roadblock. The Agency for Health Care Research and Quality recently published guidelines for the core functionalities in pediatricians' EHRs, including growth charts, vaccination records and family dynamics.
Inadequate EHR systems create significant problems for doctors participating in Meaningful Use. The 5 percent engagement regulation requires secure, constant communication with patients, a feature that some of the pediatric platforms notably lack. Without them, practices could face financial penalties from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency charged with overseeing the program.
Doctors need comprehensive systems to deliver optimal care, and moving into 2015, the hope is that vendors will answer the call for enhanced EHR performance.
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Ronny Bachrach
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