Life as a CIO Blog, March 13, 2013
BEI Commentary: Some of our practices use scribes to assist with clinical documentation. What is the best practice for using scribes? What about workflows? Credentials? Dr. John Halamka has a few good points to make about this in his blog.
Given the rigors of documentation required for Meaningful Use, quality measurement, and ICD10, some organizations are adding dedicated scribes to rounding and evaluation teams.
I was recently asked two questions about scribes.
Does Meaningful Use allow the use of scribes?
Meaningful Use does not specify who does the documentation, as long as the thresholds for data capture are exceeded. Read More
The Blog that Ate Manhattan, January 16, 2012
BEI Commentary: For most physicians, integrating an EHR into their practice is a process. Some do it faster than others. Many times, the issue is not so much the EHR itself, but the workflow surrounding the use of the EHR. Here is a blog from a physician who struggled with this issue and came out with a positive outcome.
One day, about 5 years into using the electronic medical record in my practice, I came to the realization that I wasn’t having fun anymore. I was sitting throughout most of every office encounter facing a computer screen, my back to the patient on the exam table across the room. The joy of face to face interaction with people, the real reason I went into medicine in the first place, had been replaced with the more pressing urgency of data entry.
My revisit routine went something like this – I’d enter the room, briefly greet the patient (undressed and sitting on the exam table) and then, apologetically saying “Let me just open your chart”, I’d log on and begin interacting with the more immediately demanding presence in the room – the EMR. I’d turn around as often as I could to look at my patient, but mostly I listened but kept my back to her and I typed. After which I’d rush over to her side, do the exam, then head back over to the computer to make sure I got all her orders, refills and charges in as required. A brief goodbye, and I was on to my next patient. Read More
