Unlike a transaction system like an EHR, a data analytics solution works with data from many sources, is optimized for query speed, and offers a curated schema designed to help answer key questions.
d2i converts your EHR and other data into trusted, timely, and actionable information necessary to meet your objectives.
Many health care organizations (HCOs) have recently updated their electronic health record (EHR) systems in order to comply with the ACA and gain their incentives. While EHR vendors may have promised to solve all their interoperability, productivity, and analytics challenges, studies show that EHRs still lack sophisticated analytical functionality, leading to customer dissatisfaction and contributing to a growing desire to switch vendors.
Recent research indicates the number of HCOs planning to switch EHR systems — or those in the process of switching — has been growing in the past few years. A 2018 report by Black Book Market Research found that 22 percent of hospital IT managers reported observing EHR alternative vendors in 2019. Another report indicated that more than 40 percent of the 127 HCOs surveyed were either “dissatisfied with or indifferent” about their current EHR systems. That’s a telling number, considering that by 2013 the EHR adoption rate in the U.S. was 78 percent in ambulatory and 59 percent in acute care settings.
The most commonly cited reasons for dissatisfaction included:
- A poorly designed user interface
- Outdated technology
- Performance, productivity, and functionality issues
- Physician burnout (due, in part, to time-consuming, error-prone data entry)
- Cost
- Poor customer service
Cost is among the top two reasons why HCOs consider an EHR vendor switch. One study found that nearly half of the respondents thought the cost of their EHR system was too high, with 65 percent reporting implementation-related financial losses in their organization.
Another big deciding factor was an increasing demand for system functionality to meet shifting regulatory standards, including the Meaningful Use and Physician Quality Reporting System standards, and to fulfill quality-reporting measures.
As reported in Perspectives in Health Information Management, a 2014 study of approximately 1,000 physicians conducted by MPI Group has found that:
- 70 percent of health care providers surveyed said they thought implementing EHRs wasn’t worth doing.
- Nearly two-thirds of participating physicians said they would not purchase their current EHR system again because of high costs and poor functionality.
- 74 percent of polled providers said functionality would influence their decision to switch to another EHR system.
Why EHRs Alone Are Not Enough
There are three main reasons EHRs fall short in data analytics, even when HCOs are heavily investing in them:
- EHRs are simply not designed for data analytics or business intelligence.
- HCOs are challenged by gaps in skills and the cost of resources to integrate all their data meaningfully.
- EHRs are not intuitive or user-friendly.
Recent studies have found a correlation between the implementation of EHR systems with an increase in stress among some medical professionals, leading to physician burnout, data entry errors, and other negative consequences.
Possible Solutions
EHRs can streamline critical HCO functions like practice management, patient communication, test and prescription ordering, billing, and more. They digitize processes, replacing paper records and store a lot of data in one place.
While EHR data alone can be very useful, optimizing HCO performance requires analytics of data derived from multiple sources. EHRs are designed primarily as transactional systems, not analytics solutions, even though they do provide a critical data source for advanced performance analytics.
As a transaction system, EHRs offer efficient record-oriented processing to automate business operations. In contrast, a data analytics solution works with data from many transactional databases, is optimized for query speed, and offers schema designed to help answer key questions that enable cross-functional teams to identify, implement, and manage opportunities for performance improvement.
Even if your organization has an existing data warehouse, business intelligence, or analytics initiative, your data may still be locked away. Only comprehensive data analytics solutions can deliver the timely, relevant, and actionable information HCOs need to monitor and improve performance.
HCOs need an analytics solution that allows them to not only convert clinical data to electronic format but to also convert their clinical, financial, administrative, and patient satisfaction data, gained from multiple sources, into actionable insights.
d2i’s data analytics solution can help HCOs harness the analytic power of their data. Our intuitive performance analytics can provide a comprehensive picture of performance that can be used to identify insights that lead to improvements in quality and efficiency. We can also help make EHR data more reliable by addressing data quality issues, data gaps, and outliers thanks to our cleaning and integration processes. Contact us for more information about our solutions and business intelligence support, or to schedule a 30-minute demo.