06/07/2016
The efficient and effective use of Electronic Health Records are essential, as these systems are increasingly becoming a central tool for patient care.
The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act provided providers with a significant financial incentive to increase the adoption and use of EHRs. EHR vendors were required to conduct and report on a summative usability evaluation of their system as part of the Stage 2 Meaningful Use program (The ONC 2014 Edition Certification). However, a recent report funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), identified several “issues” with the certified EHR vendors in the processes, practices and use of standards and best practices with regard to usability and human factors.
According to recent reports, medical mistakes are now the 3rd largest cause of death. We all can imagine a situation where the lack of usability of a Health IT vendor product can become a patient safety issue. The usability of health IT system, however, is more than the responsibility of just the EHR vendor.
Health IT is a critical tool that needs to be examined in its entire context of use. Vendors, and providers and implementers need to take a more holistic approach in examining all of the human “touch points” with the entire system and work hard to create systems that help reduce errors and save lives.
We’ve identified several of these “touch points” that are not clearly addressed in the ONC certification program, and provide some thoughts below on how we think they should be addressed.
http://www.theusabilitypeople.com/thought_leadership/ehr-usability-gaps-specified-context-use
The efficient and effective use of Electronic Health Records are essential, as these systems are increasingly becoming a central tool for patient care. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act provided providers with a significant financial incentive to increas...
