From the June 2014 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine


The second technical aspect of the workflow challenge deals with data validation. Depending on the hospital’s policies, even if data are sent directly to the EMR, further review may be required before approval. For instance, if a patient care technician was on hand to acquire the information, but hospital policy dictates validation by a registered nurse, the data may be in a holding pattern until an RN can get to it and confirm that the information looks valid.

2. Change management — change management deals with maintaining the system once it’s in place. This can be another big challenge due to all the parts in play, says Krishnan. Every time multiple systems are connected to each other, any change in one system could impact how data flows among every system it is connected to. With medical device vendors frequently releasing updates, it translates to numerous opportunities for glitches. Information Technology or Information Services may also make changes — each change increasing the possibility that problems may arise.


Krishnan says it’s important that hospitals have vendor cooperation and strong communication among the teams dealing with EMR integration. Having a heads-up about software updates can also be a boon. Knowing a software update is pending gives the facility a chance to plan accordingly.

Krishnan recommends that hospitals have test labs as well as vigorous policies and procedures in place to monitor and test changes before they go live. The main point to note is that clinical engineering, IT and nursing should all be working together to review the updates. And the lab doesn’t need to be complicated — it can be as simple as having a mock-IT network with a few access points, but it again requires vendor cooperation to have some licenses to get it set up, just not with live patients.



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