The average medical provider receives between eight and 12 years of formal education followed by practical experience and continuing education. It’s an understatement to say that these providers are highly trained! Nevertheless, as well-versed as they are in the medical field, that does not necessarily mean they’re as skilled when it comes to optimizing clinical workflow. While spending several years watching providers struggle with EHR adoption, I’d like to share some of my observations.
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Meaningful Use (MU) was introduced in 2009 and stems from the Health Information Technology for Economic & Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. The goal of the first stage was for health systems (and providers). The first stage of implementation was focused on getting a billable platform with rudimentary solutions quickly deployed by EHR vendors. Healthcare providers struggled to implement a “one size fits all” model. Under this model, the provider— nurse, therapist, or physician—was relegated to a generic workflow which was not customized for specific specialties or for the provider’s preferences. These providers had little autonomy. As a result, adoption rates were low, and provider satisfaction was significantly compromised.
During the second stage of MU, there was a clear shift towards EHRs being able to capture said data, organize it and report on the findings. These advances resulted in improved adoption and utility which provided a significant financial win for healthcare systems and providers. Unfortunately, they fell short by not addressing the shortcomings of generic clinical workflows.
Entering the third stage of MU, we are finally beginning to see this issue being addressed through evolution of the EHRs themselves as well as compatible, easy-to-use applications that help the provider enter data more easily and naturally. These applications include speech recognition programs that have become more refined and secure, allowing for faster, more efficient data entry. SayIt™ from nVoq is one such speech solution. Products like SayIt improve provider efficiency by simplifying and streamlining the data entry process, saving 25% or more documentation time each day. More face time with patients is the end goal now being achieved.
As health systems continue to progress EHR adoption and utilization in Stage III clinical workflow optimization will continue to be a priority for application developers. Speech recognition will be a key component of this evolution as health systems seek to optimize both documentation quality and provider productivity.
If you would like to learn more about optimizing clinical workflow through speech recognition, contact nVoq to learn more about SayIt™!