The 22nd Annual HIMSS Leadership Survey [1], released at the HIMSS annual conference this week, showed that half of the respondents from 700 hospitals cited difficulty achieving end user acceptance as one of the top three barriers to achieving meaningful use. Providers need IT solutions that fit their clinical workflow realities. IT can have the greatest impact on patient care when it is used to help providers improve clinical and quality outcomes. Mobility is the key to engaging end users, especially physicians, in meaningful use.
This is absolutely working in hundreds of hospitals nationwide who are using mobile technology to deliver data traditionally locked in clinical information systems. When we leverage the secure and ubiquitous delivery benefits afforded by mobile communications to free up the information otherwise stuck in some application or data warehouse, we transcend geographic and logistical barriers to care. This creates a cascade of benefits. Great Things begin to happen.
For example, we know that mobilizing clinical information can optimize patient throughput. No longer must patients wait for hours in the emergency department until a remote physician specialist can provide a consultation. It can happen immediately, in real time. Care is timely and efficient. Patients get better, faster. Patients and families are more satisfied. Providers experience exponential productivity gains. Clinicians are more satisfied. These are clearly Great Things for healthcare systems, healthcare providers, and the public at large.
When we build native applications that transform the data relative to the device, and deliver it as intelligence in visually meaningful ways, we improve clinical decision making at the point of care. Even more Great Things happen. We enhance cognition. We improve diagnostics. We can guide better choices by patients and providers.
When we incorporate evidence-based medicine and knowledge-based prompts with the delivery of critical information, we create an IT solution that not only helps us achieve meaningful use objectives, but one that helps us begin to improve clinical and quality outcomes. Isn't that where we started with this post?
We've learned that successful HIT Leaders who wish to overcome the big barriers to achieving meaningful use are re-examining how they leverage the data - housed in those EMRs, bedside monitors and devices, pharmacy, lab, and other clinical information systems - to improve care. Those who have added a meaningful mobility solution to their strategy are quickly seeing a difference. Mobility can help achieve meaningful use objectives, and all the while it also causes Great Things to happen.
We’ll explore more Great Things afforded by meaningful mobility in the next few weeks.
References:
[1] http://www.himss.org/2011Survey/
