“What do you really hold dear to you that you want to preserve into the future as you transition to an electronic medical record?”
That's the question Innovation Partners International posed to providers attending a recent regional extension center educational forum in Maine.
Bernard Mohr, a partner at the firm, said he grew up next to a farm with milking cows. The stools the farmers used to milk those cows were three-legged. They had learned that a stool with three legs is actually much more stable on uneven ground than a four-legged stool, he said.
That stool offers a metaphor for managing the transition to an EMR, Mohr said.
According to Mohr and Robert (Bob) Laliberte, who teaches the University of New England’s Project Management Program and is also a partner at Innovation Partners International, the three legs of the stool of an EMR implementation are life-giving properties, hopes and aspirations and first steps. Identifying those three components offers a better chance at a successful transition to an EMR, they said.
Mohr and Laliberte asked the 30 providers in attendance to form groups and identify the life-giving properties or core values that give their practices vitality – ones that, “if not retained during the transition to their EMR, would irreparably worsen the situation.”
“Autonomy is important for me,” said one doctor. “And feeling like I am doing something that matters – helping people. If I end up just playing with medical records, that would be the pits for me. I don’t want to spend more time with a machine than the people I am trying to help.”
Laliberte said attendees should consider an EMR as a possibility rather than a burden. He asked providers to think about “exciting possibilities” that the technology could bring to their practices.
Providers agreed that improved quality of care and patient satisfaction were at the top of the list. They also said it’s important that providers have improved satisfaction.
“In the end, the most important thing is that you are making a difference for your patients. That is what it is all about,” said one attendee.
The last question attendees had to answer was, “What is the smallest step you could take in the next week to start moving toward your desired future?”
Answers included identifying one’s goals and visions for the technology, as well as talking to other providers about their experience.
Remember, said Laliberte in closing, “The EMR is at the service of the patient.”
