Q: How do I get the physicians at our hospital interested in understanding and adopting our new investment in technology, rather than just showing up to our catered informational lunch meeting for the food?
A: A multi-pronged approach for getting physicians to adopt healthcare information technology (HIT) is necessary, and requires the guidance of a physician HIT expert. Healthcare organizations have invested a great deal of time, money, and effort into their current information systems (IS), and healthcare management and their IS departments are finding it increasingly difficult to achieve the value expected from an IS investment. Staff turnover and lack of effective follow-up training, less than optimal decisions made during system build, and lack of resources result in an under-utilization of available functionality, lack of appropriate reports, and unnecessary manual workarounds that are created so people can complete their job responsibilities. Hospital executives, particularly those in IS, want to maximize the use of their IT systems.
A challenge to any healthcare IT system is to bridge the gap between technology and real-world clinical environments, and encourage physicians to use automated systems in the care delivery process. Physicians’ daily workflow will be affected by the new processes and automated functionality. The first step in enabling and encouraging physicians’ involvement, is to have a physician HIT expert implement a readiness assessment program. This assessment is essential to ensure that the appropriate staff and workflow processes are prepared and educated to use these new technological initiatives. It is also important to assess the integration of these new initiatives with existing systems and processes will be smooth and seamless. Education and adoption by healthcare professionals of these initiatives should be led by experienced, senior level personnel who have been through similar initiatives and understand not only the process and technology change that takes place, but also can manage the human aspect of change management that is the inevitable result of such new and exciting IT initiatives.
-Steven B. Deitch, MD, Director Medical Informatics
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