While healthcare needs technology to enhance the patient experience, technology can be an obstacle to the physician experience.
This is due to increased administrative burden and lack of interoperability between the electronic health record itself and with other forms of health IT. In reality, More than half of clinicians feel overwhelmed by administrative burdens and frustrated by the challenges of accessing patient clinical information.
Curtis Sherbo is vice president of product management for EHR manufacturer Athenahealth. He believes that by deepening the patient/provider relationship, technology can be designed in a way that helps alleviate problems for both parties while not adding to existing problems. .
For example, technologies that provide more automation to patients could help reduce the administrative burden of clinicians, he said.
We interviewed Sherbo for his expert opinion on improving the patient experience while not disturbing the clinician’s experience.
Q. Improving the patient experience is a key priority for healthcare delivery organizations today. What is the role of technology in this effort?
ONE. Patients today are increasingly looking for convenient, consumer-centric healthcare experiences, especially in the past few years. In fact, they expect to be able to manage appointments, view test results, and renew medication online.
So technology needs to modernize the healthcare experience, similar to how technology has made the financial services and retail industries more consumer-centric, to provide more convenience, Easy and instant for patient experience.
Healthcare IT innovation can bring scale and efficiency to provider organizations looking to amplify the patient experience. However, it is important that the technology is built and implemented in a way that not only improves the patient experience but also reduces the administrative burden on the clinicians providing care, which will ultimately improve clinicians’ experience and their ability to improve health outcomes.
There is still plenty of room for the health information technology industry to meet this need. At Athenahealth, we recently conducted The Physician Sentiment Survey and found that the majority of physicians (73%) said their organization did not have processes in place to minimize their time on administrative tasks, which sacrifices their time for patient care.
As patients experience technology that combines both the provider and the patient’s needs, the patient will feel as though their provider is much more accessible while the provider will have more time and resources. to provide more personalized care to their patients.
Health technology can achieve this by empowering patients to complete a number of administrative tasks – whether that be appointment scheduling, pre-appointment paperwork or follow-up information – and integrate incorporate that information into the supplier’s workflow so the supplier can use it at the right place and time.
Q. How might efforts to enhance the patient experience hinder the clinician’s experience?
ONE. Patient experience technology innovation can impede the clinical experience if the level of information available to each subject is not balanced. One pitfall to watch out for when enhancing the patient experience is providing more information and transparency to the patient than to the provider.
For example, if a patient can share all of their pre-appointment information – for example, the reason for coming or the symptoms they are experiencing – prior to the visit through a mobile program technology needs to ensure this information gets to the clinician efficiently at the right time.
If patients take the time to thoroughly enter all information before their appointment, they will naturally expect their provider to have access to the information and be able to review it before the appointment.
In this example, there would be frustration for both parties if this information was not made publicly available to the doctor. This can create a negative patient experience and can lead to situations where the patient is less likely to provide information at the time or in future interactions.
Q. What must medical IT providers do to simultaneously help patients and not hinder providers?
ONE. When developing patient experience technology, it cannot stop at all about simplifying the process for patients to ensure the completeness and accuracy of their records. As we approach our technological innovations, we are doing so through the lens of both patients and providers.
It is important for medical IT providers to ensure that information gathered through patient experience technology is effectively integrated into the clinician’s workflow. This eliminates miscommunication and empowers clinicians to more fully understand their patients and deliver quality care.
In addition, the HIT industry can take this effort one step further by building the most relevant information presentation technology that a supplier needs at the right time. Consider a single electronic patient chart as an example.
This concept is great until more information is needed for a particular appointment, which requires the clinician to dig through the chart. We have to optimize the technology to understand the clinician and the patient’s needs at any given time.
Q. How does Athenahealth integrate patient feedback in initial product research? As a provider, what opportunities do you have as an ally of both patients and providers to promote more effective healthcare?
ONE. Athenahealth’s vision for the patient experience is to bring patients and practice closer. To achieve this, we seek patient feedback in many forms when building patient experience technology. First, we have a dedicated patient research practice that seeks to find patients from a variety of backgrounds and with a variety of healthcare needs.
The team took the time to understand each patient’s unique needs through detailed interviews. This information is then used to create a patient persona for the user experience team to test their design. Second, we run user concept tests with random patient samples for each new feature before fully developing to validate any design concepts.
Once we’ve designed and built the initial version of a new feature, we’ll experiment with an increasing number of users, gathering feedback directly in the new feature. We also work with clients to understand their strategic goals and the feedback they receive from patients.
As an ally of both patients and providers, we have the opportunity to ease the communication burden between both organizations and implement technology that is both easy to use and impactful. We have a responsibility not to make technology a barrier, but instead to be an enabler of the free flow of information.
More relevant and timely information for both parties will improve the way patients and providers navigate the healthcare system and enable the best possible care delivery.
Twitter: @SiwickiHealthIT
Email the writer: [email protected]
Healthcare IT News is a publication of HIMSS Media.
