The Healthcare Hub
Reaching the Full Value of EHRs
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Tina Vatanka Murphy, President & CEO
The holy grail of electronic health record (EHR) systems is to enable healthcare organizations to deliver more effective and efficient patient care. However, when the data within these EHRs is siloed within certain departments or contain inaccurate or incomplete information, it becomes nearly impossible to accurately track medical costs, reorder necessary supplies and support the industry’s mission to provide that desired level of outstanding patient care.
An on-demand virtual item master is key to eliminating EHR data silos
In my most recent article in Supply & Demand Chain Executive, I share my thoughts on how challenges with EHR data is impacting the industry. Given the uncertainty in federal regulations, changes in reimbursements that impact both suppliers and providers, and increased pressure to move from fee for service to value based care, the healthcare industry has worked hard both from a supplier and provider standpoint to advance the sophistication of the supply chain. This also means integration with other key business processes, including financial and clinical systems, to better address the industry’s challenges.
EHRs are one of the critical components. They need accurate data and that data should come from an on-demand virtual item master — one that aggregates multiple sources of data, ranging from suppliers to regulatory databases to industry standards groups, into an enriched, consumable state. Further, to truly capitalize on the opportunity to advance the strategic value of both the supply chain, the on-demand virtual item master must allow integration with a variety of systems via multiple technical protocols in support of numerous business processes.
Recently GHX announced a game-changing solution to address this issue. GHX’s Clinical ConneXion is the first cloud-based solution for healthcare that provides the critical connection between the supply chain and the EHR applications currently in use by more than 95% of healthcare providers in North America. Clinical ConneXion bridges the gap between best practices for item master management and the broad data needed for EHR clinical documentation and the associated downstream impact. With Clinical ConneXion, organizations can more accurately document supply, increase efficiency in the operating room, have fewer missed charges, and benefit from improved tracking of supplies and better total case costing insights.
By removing the data silos between clinical, financial and supply chain systems with a solution like Clinical ConneXion, hospitals and suppliers gain an important tool to eliminate time consuming waste and leverage accurate data to make the best decisions possible, reduce costs and raise the overall quality of patient care.