Google, Microsoft drive new goals for hospital information technology.
|
| Alden Solovy |
Disease management, consumerism and the evolving link between quality and reimbursement will drive an overall increase in the total investment in information technology. In an informal poll of organizations recognized with a 2008 Most Wired award, hospital IT executives see these three forces—with particular emphasis on consumerism—pressuring hospitals to spend more on information technology.
“Consumerism will drive us to invest more money in IT solutions. In the future, I believe that patients will have an expectation that they can review their records electronically and communicate with providers via the internet,” said Arlyn Broekhuis, CIO, Sanford USD Medical Center, Sioux Falls, S.D. This is the organization’s fourth appearance on the Most Wired list.
Patients’ expectations will shift from the ability to review their records to the ability to interact with those records via a personal health record, several Most Wired CIOs said. Nearly 80 percent of Most Wired organizations provide Web-based PHRs, more than double the typical hospital. Yet, the lion’s share of those PHRs are still in the pilot stage.
“Customers will want to be more involved in owning their PHR,” said Pat Berger, senior director of information services at Fairview Health Services, Minneapolis. The organization makes its first appearance on the 100 Most Wired list this year. “Vendors like Google and Microsoft, who focus on integrating the EHR into the PHR, will drive much more rapid cycle change. This will cause software vendors and provider organizations alike to shift their focus from the provider to the patient and customer, with the expectation that information will be provided better, faster and cheaper.”
Hospitals Get ‘Googled’
These new PHR providers—Google Health, Microsoft’s HealthVault and Revolution Health—are aggressively seeking consumer participation. That will change consumer expectations, said Lydon Neumann, senior executive at Accenture.
“People will presume that is easily connected, and we all know that’s not necessarily going to be a given,” he said. Along with changing consumer expectations, it will force hospitals that are lagging in IT infrastructure and systems investments to create connectivity between the EHR and the PHR or lose consumer loyalty.
“Patients are not going to just say that they hope you’ve automated these things,” Neumann added. “They’re going to expect you to participate. So this is going to change the dynamic more rapidly. There’s an incentive to get your house in order and make sure it’s solid and make sure you’ve addressed patient safety.”
In other words, the consumer-hospital dynamic—driven by outside pressures—is going to change, and hospitals must be ready.
“We see an increasing consumer demand for online services,” said William A. Spooner, vice president and CIO, Sharp HealthCare, San Diego, making its 10th appearance on the Most Wired list. “We are beginning a substantial investment into our patient portal to engage our patients online through such features as physician e-mail, prescription refills and communication of test results. We are putting metrics on our Web site to enable the public to assess the ratings by various public agencies.”
Sharp has plenty of company. Thirty-six percent of Most Wired institutions are using their Web sites to provide general public access to outcomes data. That’s more than double the typical hospital.
Patient-Centric IT
“We don’t know if consumerism and transparency will change our technology decisions, but they will change our focus on the way we implement and configure our systems,” said Lynda Powers, R.N., director of information systems, Wentworth-Douglass Hospital, Dover, N.H., a 2008 Most Improved organization. “In the past, we implemented systems to make the lives of health care providers easier. In the future, we will put the patient at the center of our design and make our patients’ lives easier.”
For IT leaders, this represents a new goal: patient-centric information technology.
Powers said that IT can be used to engage consumers earlier in the process of using the health care system, to provide patient education and to generate customer feedback to the organization. “Consumers are not reluctant to ‘shop’ for their health care and are willing to travel for quality and safety,” she said. “Health care organizations will want to market their quality initiatives, and you’ll see a change in the focus of their Web sites.”
Nearly 80 percent of the Most Wired provide patient portals, including features such researching and tracking chronic conditions, soliciting a physician referral, pre-registering for services and scheduling appointments.
“Consumerism is not the next big thing but the big thing,” said Edward Marx, senior vice president and CIO, Texas Health Resources, Arlington. The organization made its ninth appearance on the Most Wired list in 2008. “We will increase our investments to meet the requirements of consumerism with technology-enabled strategies such as the deployment of personal health records and increased transparent public reporting.”
Results of the 10th annual Most Wired Survey and Benchmarking Study were released this month in Hospitals & Health Networks. Complete survey coverage is available at www.hhnmag.com/2008MW.
Alden Solovy is executive editor and associate publisher of the journals of the American Hospital Association, Chicago.
GIVE US YOUR COMMENTS!
HHNMostWired welcomes your comment on this article. E-mail your comments to hhn@healthforum.com, fax them to Most Wired Magazine Editor at (312) 422-4500, or mail them to Editor, Most Wired Magazine, Health Forum, One North Franklin, Chicago, IL 60606.