For our latest Thought Leader podcast, I spoke with Dr. Andy Burchett, CMIO of Avera Health, about his organization’s rapid response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Recently, MEDITECH's Carol Bird had an opportunity to sit down with Dr. Doug Kanis, an Internist and CMIO at Pella Regional Health Center (Pella, IA). They discussed how Expanse's intuitive design, mobility, and interoperability helps physicians increase efficiency and improve patient care. The excerpts below are a few highlights from their conversation. To learn more about his experience using Expanse, watch our video interview with Dr. Kanis.

The COVID-19 pandemic has called for everyone to do their part to keep others safe and healthy. For many, this means staying at home as much as possible and practicing social distancing. For me, as CMIO of the Beth Israel Deaconess community hospitals, this has meant deploying numerous initiatives in response to the pandemic, from symptom screening to dashboards to telehealth.

As an emergency medicine physician, this has also meant working on the frontlines at my organization's emergency departments and volunteering in New York City, which ultimately led to me contracting the virus myself.

Recently Leah Farina, MEDITECH vice president of client services, had an opportunity to discuss the impact of virtual visits and telemedicine on patients and providers at Citizens Memorial Healthcare in Bolivar, Missouri. She spoke with Louis Harris, MD, a family medicine physician and Chief Medical Information Officer at CMH, a small, level III Trauma Center in southwest Missouri with 86 licensed beds, 32 primary and speciality services, and seven long-term care facilities serving seven counties.

The World Health Organization estimates that 134 million adverse events occur each year due to unsafe care in hospitals in low- and middle-income countries, resulting in some 2.6 million deaths, with most adverse events being preventable. 

EHRs have gotten a lot of flak from physicians for disrupting patient care in recent years, from poor navigation on information overload to meaningless data entry creating documentation geared for billing rather than clinical care. However, it’s important to remember that not all systems are created equal — at least in terms of usability.

Managing big data is critical to the health of any organization and its patients, but these initiatives can be a drain on time and resources. One way to increase efficiency, measure progress, and improve performance is through the use of analytics.

By aggregating and analyzing clinical, financial and operational data, analytical reports and dashboards inform decision making and help improve outcomes. At its best, analytics make data more meaningful and provide vital insights about organizational performance. 

Life seems so easy for industries outside of healthcare when it comes to incorporating tablets into their business. Generally, all they have to do is pick a tablet, and pick a rugged tablet case. Boom, done!

If you’re a hospital trying to modernize and introduce tablets, it’s a different situation, as you have so many things to take into account.

College students can be valuable assets during an EHR implementation, easing the burden on physicians as they transition to a new system. Mount Nittany Health’s Physician Group experience with recruits from Penn State University — located in our own backyard — was overwhelmingly positive; these students quickly developed into resident EHR experts, coaching primary care physicians and specialists on navigating and using the software. The physicians benefited from tech-savvy students serving as at-the-elbow support, and the students garnered first-hand, real-world experience in a clinical setting. 

Every year, the CHIME CIO Forum is a great opportunity to delve into the hot topics surrounding healthcare IT. From face-to-face networking with colleagues and peers to valuable education sessions geared toward meeting the needs of healthcare IT professionals, it’s always a pleasure to connect with industry thought leaders.