Hospital shifts away from ‘EHR-first’ strategy – Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News
Technology is evolving quickly, and so is EHR strategy, to improve capacity, operations and patient care.
Cody Walker, president of Baptist Health Medical Center – Little Rock is taking the lessons learned from other consumer-focused industries to apply similar analytics and technology for a better patient experience. His goal is to eliminate anything that doesn’t add value to the consumer and simplify all points of care.
“We are looking at rideshare analytics and how they link supply and demand weeks ahead of time. We’ve got similar data now that can aid in staffing beds for future demand,” said Mr. Walker during an interview for the “Becker’s Healthcare Podcast.” “We spent a lot of time researching the public utility sector, specifically how energy divisions model load placed on the grid through variable forecasting. This ensures that when you or I flip on the switch in our kitchen, light is always available. Imagine if healthcare could be that reliable.”
His team is creating processes and identifying technologies that will support the consumer-centric vision of healthcare. Mr. Walker is also looking at the space industry, and their cost-cutting mechanisms to become more efficient and automate more, for better operations and quicker innovation. The health system so far has been able to reduce the bedside nurse documentation burden by 30 minutes through virtual nurse implementation and other reductions in the EHR.
“With our recent efforts, we’ve focused on acute care, but now we’re shifting that attention to the ambulatory front,” said Mr. Walker. “Like many others, we’re headed down that ambient listening path to uncover more opportunities and better engage with our patients versus engaging with the EHR. But ultimately, our big goal is going to be becoming that reliable, predictable, efficient health system.”
The EHR is a big investment and often considered the central component to IT strategy for healthcare organizations. But Mr. Walker isn’t letting that hold his hospital back.
“Over the years, I’ve heard it said that when looking to implement new solutions that we should employ the EHR-first strategy, and essentially that is the notion that if our EHR vendor offers a solution that we should consider it before looking to the outside,” said Mr. Walker. “But we’re starting to shift our focus from the EHR-first to consumer-first. We’re actively looking for ways to implement a new digital front door, all aimed at putting that consumer at the forefront and making it easier for patients to get care.”
In taking the consumer-first approach, Baptist Health Medical Center is improving access with more virtual care, which also allows for smoother operations. Patients want a seamless experience in healthcare just like they’re used to in other industries; they can order essentials online and they’re delivered the same day, right to their doorstep.
“How cool would it be if patients could self-schedule a primary or specialty care appointment in less than 60 seconds? There are new entrants to primary care that are close to pulling that off, and we, in the traditional health system enterprise, can do that,” he said. “It requires challenging the norm, simplifying the steps, bleeding anything that is unnecessary and accelerating the process, and then automating it. That’s our goal.”