Most Healthcare Execs Doubt EHR Use Can Support Population Health

75 percent of healthcare executives doubt EHR technology will help meet the demands of population health management.

November 13, 2017 - EHR systems don't yet have the vital abilities to provide population health management and value based care, as indicated by a current report distributed by Price Waterhouse Cooper's Health Research Institute (HRI).

The examination by Berg et al. discovered just 23 percent of interviewed healthcare administrators accept that EHR technology has helped position their organizations to meet the requirements of population health management and Value based care.

"EHRs are compelling as a store for clinical information yet don't have the instruments yet to completely bolster suppliers' population health endeavors," composed researchers in the report. "Just 36 percent of providers are utilizing their EHRs for population health management, and only 13 percent emphatically accept that EHRs have lived up to their desires for it."

As per records from the leadership and providers of several healthcare organization, most EHR technology and information examination abilities are not yet sufficiently grown to suit forms vital for risk management.

"Better strong and developed data models are expected to incorporate other information —, for example, financial data and supply chain management data — to have the capacity to perform patient stratification, which is basic to overseeing risk in population health," they expressed.

HRI directed meetings with 15 healthcare administrators and examined information from other HRI clinician, patient, and healthcare official surveys led all through 2017. Research included responses from more than 350 providers.

At last, researchers discovered most providers require extra apparatuses and innovations to advance their systems and completely use EHR information.

"A few vendors are putting resources into cutting edge tech to help fill gaps, diminish dependence on EHR vendors, and increase malleability of the system," they noted.

Regardless of parts of EHR technology missing the mark concerning prospering zones of care, for example, population health management, some EHR features have met the provider demands and requirements. Researchers discovered 76 percent of surveyed providers accept that the use of EHR has adequately empowered viable correspondence amongst patients and clinicians. Moreover, 54 percent of surveyed clinicians trust that EHR systems enhance care quality, and 87 percent of clinicians say EHR systems have enhanced the patientexperience.

While some clinical inefficiencies can be faulted for lacking EHR technology, researchers got confirmation that numerous providers are utilizing their EHR systems improperly.

"Forty-five percent of providers are utilizing their EHRs to stockroom their information despite the fact that EHRs are not viably worked for doing as such," researchers said. "EHRs battle to deal with the unstructured information that is gathered by clinicians in notes and to coordinate information from different systems."

Researchers likewise discovered numerous providers are not exploiting chances to use EHR information to help practice-based research. In any case, providers are not to fault for the absence of research-related EHR information utilize – rather, EHR systems confinements are frequently the hindering component.

"Despite the fact that they regularly are powerful for enlightening, review surveys of patient populations —, for example, recognizing all patients with a specific condition in a given period — they do not have the ability to accomplish more vigorous investigations, for example, prescient demonstrating, which can enable providers to reveal a patient population's future needs."

Subsequently, 42 percent of surveyed providers expressed they intend to concentrate on non-EHR advances for research and clinical trials enlistment throughout the following three to five years.

As a major aspect of its report, HRI offered four suggestions to help healthcare authority and providers in more viably using EHR technology to help population health, esteem based care, and other clinical, operational, and research-related features.