Practice Point: The Value of Smart Workflows in a Specialty Electronic Medical Record

Applying processes and workflows are vital for a successful business. In healthcare, these needs are more apparent than ever as providers are automating a traditional manual process by adopting electronic medical records (EMRs).

The goals when using the EMR are to drive accountability of care to leverage clinical tasks from the physician to the clinician; improve care coordination through smart, efficient workflows and compliant documentation; impart care coordination through evidence-based care models; and maximize reports to drive compliance.

Compounding the shifts to process and efficiency change is the adaptation to regulations and evidence-based clinical practice guidelines, as well as the introduction of improved devices/technology.

The value of using smart workflows is to manage and optimize critical Clinical, Operational, Regulatory, Economic (CORE [CORE, a proprietary process developed by Cathy Thomas Hess, chief clinical officer and vice president, Professional Services, Net Health, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania]) functions, thereby streamlining documentation; improving quality care, patient safety, and satisfaction; and increasing process efficiencies.

Process is defined as a series of actions, changes, or functions bringing about a result.1 Along with every process come defined targeted actions and goals. All of the actions taken need to be clearly defined through your healthcare processes.

Workflow, as defined by the Agency on Healthcare Quality and Research, is a series of steps, frequently performed by different staff members and often dependent on related workflows, which accomplish a particular task. Workflows represent how work actually gets done, not the protocols that have been established to do the work.2

Read the rest of the article at Advances in Skin & Wound Care.

You can learn more about the history of EHRs here.

An excerpt from an article originally published in Advances in Skin & Wound Care, written by Cathy Thomas Hess, BSN, RN, CWOCN, VP and Chief Clinical Officer at Net Health