This article was originally submitted and published on HISTALK.com on 03/24/2010.
While riding the shuttle to my hotel at HIMSS in Atlanta, I overheard two strangers behind me comparing stories of the conference to one another. Their short exchange encapsulated for me both the HIMSS event and the climate in which we are now living. The conversation went something like this:
Woman: "I attended a session today conducted by an IT expert. You won’t believe what I heard"
Man: "Really?"
Woman: "Oh yes. The presenter was talking about successful EMR and IT implementations and actually said, 'The physicians are the ones who have received the education. They are the ones who treat patients. So they must be the focus of our implementation.""
Man: "You're kidding."
Woman: "No! I was so offended I nearly walked out."
Man: "Thats ridiculous."
Whether one agrees with the federal stimulus package and the push toward EHRs, the fact remains that it has created a significant impact on the business of healthcare IT. Clinicians, administration, and IT each play an important role in running the healthcare organization. Administration and IT serve, however, in support roles to the mission of providing an environment that allows clinicians to do what they do best: treat patients.
Over the past decade, the role of IT has grown significantly as healthcare has played catch-up to the most other industries in moving away from paper and manual systems to electronic and automated systems. This shift has had its share of challenges and most organizations can list a number of tragic stories of failed or messy implementations. Difficult workflow, poor user adoption, and meaningless data are all symptomatic of the problem of letting IT professionals make critical decisions sans clinical input regarding system procurement, design, and implementation.
It appears we have not learned our lesson. Introducing federal subsidized funding and reimbursement into the business model of clinical information systems the federal government has shifted focus to management and IT, leaving clinicians in the trailing position. The idea that caregivers come last could not be more backward to the true value proposition of healthcare. This industry is, and will remain, primarily about providing healthcare. No matter how advanced EHRs, widgets, and handheld devices become, patients will continue to measure satisfaction by whether a doctor knows what she’s doing, has the right tools to treat, and that they ultimately are healthy.
So to that presenter at HIMSS, I am not offended. It seems in this climate we have forgotten that we are in the business of letting clinicians treat patients. No EHR, HIS, PACS, eMAR, or any other system can provide better patient care without a doctor reaching out a stethoscope and asking her patient to breathe deeply. We in administration and IT get to play a valuable role in providing the tools and support to help our physicians provide better patient care. But we are just that — support.
Let’s not let the promise of a few dollars and the lure of a few vendor-hosted parties blind us to that fact.
Jef Williams is vice president of Ascendian Healthcare Consulting of Sacramento, CA.