The personal connection between patients and providers develops trust, which builds better communication and leads to real conversations that enhance overall care quality. As the true foundation for effective care, this connection is the only real way to enhance patient satisfaction.
While this may seem like a simple concept, it has become lost due to today’s health IT innovations that remove the human element of patient care. In fact, studies show that it takes specialists an average of 16 minutes to enter patient information into an EHR, and primary care physicians take 19 minutes. So in an average visit, more time is spent documenting care than delivering care!
This also results in a lack of eye contact that leads patients to feel as if they are no longer the focus of the visit. In reality, it should be the other way around, where physicians spend a few minutes with the EHR, and the rest of the time interacting face-to-face with patients.
This is just one example of how the original vision behind health IT – to be an enabler for better care coordination and outcomes – has been undermined by technology.
Many of today’s technologies are so antiquated that they are creating unprecedented levels of physician and nurse burnout, spoiling careers and costing medicine many talented practitioners.
In addition, the idea of health data exchange has been neglected until the passage of the 21st Century Cures Act. The current HIT arena does not support true data interoperability through data blocking, and lacks data normalization standards. While Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) have played a tremendous role in breaking down these barriers, there is much more work to be done.
Overall, this leads to less-satisfied care providers, which leads to low patient satisfaction scores; and it becomes a vicious cycle that is difficult to break.
How did we get here?
In 1928, the American College of Surgeons (ACOS) sought to improve the standards of records being created in clinical settings through the creation of medical records. This initial documentation of patient records in a paper format was a game-changer, and allowed providers to better treat patients with a more complete medical history at their fingertips.
By the 1960s and 70s, the rise of computers moved patient records into an electronic format, and this slowly caught on though the 1980s and 1990s. Though it wasn’t until the 2000s when “meaningful use” came into play. By 2015, 96 percent of hospitals were using electronic health records.
During this evolution, although there was also an increase in a wider-range of health IT solutions, the patient-provider connection suffered. Much of this comes down to innovations that were developed by technologists – not actual clinicians who understand real patient workflows.
An industry dedicated to saving lives needs a business revolution
We are the only industry that is dedicated to saving lives. Yet, consumer, banking and retail technologies have created efficiencies that have significantly surpassed what the healthcare sector is doing today.
Consumer-facing applications have made it easy to do everything from purchasing a car to applying for a mortgage. On the medical front, it is not unusual for specialists to obtain something as simple as access to critical patient information from the recommending primary care providers. Something has to give.
We need a human-focused business revolution where technology moves away from being seen as a cost center to a strategic tool, which creates better processes for better outcomes.
When health innovations are properly understood and applied, they can deliver better automation, streamline workflows and create a better quality of life for caregivers. Ultimately, with the human-element front and center, IT can provide better care quality.
This is especially true for nurses, who are the foundation of human-centered care. They need to make assessments on every patient, and are being distracted by cumbersome technology, which detracts from care. On top of 12 hours shifts, nurses also often need to spend an extra hour or more completing non-intuitive shift change paperwork.
Healthcare IT executives and physicians need to work smarter and be supported by technology. For that to happen, we need real interoperability, exchange of data, and ease of use of electronic health records to successfully make the value-based care transition and improve patient lives.
We also need to step back and remember that the human connection is vital foundation for care. It’s not too late for all of us to re-think health IT and bring Hippocrates’ famous quote to life: “Wherever the art of Medicine is loved, there is also a love of Humanity.”
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