1. How do we use our health IT application for process improvement activities?
You are now at the point where you should allow your health IT application to work for you. It provides significant tools and data that you can use to improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of the care provided and administrative functions at your clinic.
- Use standard reports from the health IT application to identify delays and inconsistencies in your clinic. A team can assess the information more closely and introduce quality improvement projects.
- Assess the decision support features of your system and, by using data from your health IT application, determine the extent to which provider practices can be improved upon.
- Determine patient populations warranting specific interventions (for example diabetic patients) and assess adherence to your clinic’s practice standards.
By pursuing any of these activities, workflows are also positively affected.
2. What are the benefits of using our health IT application to assess workflows postimplementation?
By finalizing flowcharts on how tasks and activities will be accomplished post-health IT application implementation, you will experience minimal:
- patient delays,
- billing backlogs, and
- duplication of effort.
Keep in mind the financial commitment associated with implementing health IT and find ways to leverage the investment. Fully using your system may allow you to meet Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs requirements and benefit in other significant ways.