Hospital CIOs Still Think Outcomes Improvement Is The Best Use Of EMR Data

Sure, there might be a lot of ways to leverage data found within EMRs, but outcomes improvement is still king. This is one of the standout conclusions from a recently-released survey of CHIME CIOs, sponsored by the trade group and industry vendor LeanTaaS, in which the two asked hospital CIOs five questions about their perceptions about the impact of EMR data use in growing operating margins and revenue.

I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t surprised to read that 24% of respondents felt that improving clinical outcomes was the most effective use of their EMR data. Hey, why else would their organizations have spent so much money on EMRs in the first place?  (Ok, that’s probably a better question than I’ve made it out to be.)

Ten percent of respondents said that increasing operational efficiencies was the best use of EMR data, an idea which is worth exploring further, but the study didn’t offer a whole lot of additional detail on their thought process. Meanwhile, 6% said that lowering readmissions was the most effective use of EMR data, and 2% felt that its highest use was reducing unnecessary admissions. (FWIW, the press release covering the survey suggested that the growth in value-based payment should’ve pushed the “reducing  readmissions” number higher, but I think that’s oversimplifying things.)

In addition to looking at EMR data benefits, the study looked at other factors that had an impact on revenue and margins. For example, respondents said that reducing labor costs (35%) and boosting OR and ED efficiency (27%) would best improve operating margins, followed by 24% who favored optimizing inpatient revenue by increasing access. I think you’d see similar responses from others in the hospital C-suite. After all, it’s hard to argue that labor costs are a big deal.

Meanwhile, 52% of the CIOs said that optimizing equipment use was the best approach for building revenue, followed by optimizing OR use (40%). Forty-five percent of responding CIOs said that OR-related call strategies had the best chance of improving operating margins.

That being said, the CIOs don’t exactly feel free to effect changes on any of these fronts, though their reasons varied.

Fifty-four percent of respondents said that budget limitations the biggest constraint they faced in launching new initiatives, and 33% of respondents said the biggest obstacle was lack of support resources. This was followed by 17% who said that new initiatives were being eclipsed by higher priority projects, 17% said they lacked buy-in from management and 10% who said he lack the infrastructure to pursue new projects.

Are any of these constraints unfamiliar to you, readers? Probably not. Wouldn’t it be nice if we did at least solved these predictable problems and could move on to different stumbling blocks?

About the author

Anne Zieger

Anne Zieger is a healthcare journalist who has written about the industry for 30 years. Her work has appeared in all of the leading healthcare industry publications, and she's served as editor in chief of several healthcare B2B sites.

   

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