Utilizing AI to Improve the Efficiency of EHRs

EHR systems used for large networks for healthcare delivery today are quite often seen as being far from user-friendly. They are viewed as being far from flexible and costly in their configuration. Sometimes referred to as monolithic, EHR are almost always purchased from vendors and they require a vast amount of time, budget, and consulting assistance before they can be deployed, supported, and optimized.

The popular systems seem to mostly be built around existing technology and it shows in how user-friendly they are. There are a number of practitioners that find that they are, on the contrary, complex and far less than ideal when it comes to navigation. In these cases finding an EHR that is a good fit with their existent care delivery process is a rarity.

The goal of a delivery network and the deployment of a broad enterprise EHR is for them to help clinicians, not hinder them. This is a growing challenge. A clinician has a knowledge-base that extends beyond the clinical arena. They possess procedural knowledge, patient context knowledge, and knowledge of the administrative process. EHRs cannot efficiently capture all of this knowledge and make it readily available. On top of this, the United States has billing and revenue cycle requirements that compound the complexity of the EHR workflow and take away from the time that physicians can engage with their patients.

The choice for bettering this misalignment between the systems and processes are limited. One solution is to design EHR systems to be streamlined from the onset. Another choice is to use AI to make existing EHR more flexible, more intelligent, and more user-friendly. Vohra Wound Physicians designed their own proprietary Vohra EHR. A handpicked group of physicians designed the EHR specifically for wound care in the post-acute care setting. By way of clinical decision support (CDS) and AI, the EHR leverages their vast wound database and supplies their doctors with optimal support for the design and implementation of the very best individualized treatment plans. Their niche-specific smart technology has driven their success rate with quality outcomes higher because their clinicians are able to focus on providing care for their patients at bedside rather than spending time tied up in administrative knots.

These administrative knots are what can make EHR stand alone systems difficult to use and pushes them to the top of the list of contributing factors for clinician burnout. The customization of EHRs to create a more user-friendly system for clinicians is mostly a process that is manual. The Vohra EHR is an example of how AI and ML can assist EHRs to adapt to their users’ preferences and make improvements on both clinical outcomes and the clinicians’ quality of life. These capabilities have to be integrated tightly with EHRs in order to be effective.

Most of the current AI options are standalone systems and they don’t provide as much value as the integrated systems. They also require clinicians that are already pressed for time to learn how to use new interfaces. Many of the mainstream EHR vendors are starting to add AI capabilities so that their systems will be more user-friendly such as:

• NLP
• ML for clinical decision support
• integrated telehealth technology
• automated analysis of imaging

This will give integrated interfaces access to the information within the systems. EHRs should all be developed with integrated telehealth technology (similar to Vohra Wound Care’s system). Healthcare costs are rising and new delivery methods are being tested. Glucometers and/or blood pressure cuffs that are automated to measure the patient’s statistics and send the results to the EHR from their home are being used more often. Many Veteran’s Administration clinicians are using them.

Electronic patient outcomes and personal health records are being used for providers to emphasize the urgency of patient-centered care and self disease management. All of the data resources are the most useful when they are integrated into an existing EHR. The transition to the digital transformation of healthcare delivery through smarter EHRs is rolling out and will soon be mainstream.

This article has been sponsored by Vohra Wound Physicians