Medical practitioners are frequently entrusted with clinical decisions that have a major impact on patient mortality and livelihood, which is why there is no margin for clinical errors or mistakes under any circumstances. Physicians must uphold their trust by maintaining care delivery standards and ensuring compliance with best practice guidelines.
The quest for healthcare accountability has been more of a struggle at best. Most physicians have their own unique workflows. It is partially the reason why evidence based practice methods are viewed as a threat to individualism of a practice. However, with healthcare expenditure soaring each year and the recently reported figures amounting up to 17.3% of the total GDP, the US government plans to take things seriously. Subsequently, several Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) have been established by the government plans to replace the inefficient fee for service method with result or cure based compensations.
The pursuit of ACOs began with the implementation of EMR. Automation of clinical processes lead to standardization of medical procedures, and the effect of EMR adoption is evident with the change in organizational cultures throughout the healthcare community.
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eliminate clinical ambiguities by reducing errors, test duplication and information disparity. EMRs would never forget the patient’s current and past diagnosis, medications, immunizations or family medical history leading to reduced instances of physicians working only with the information at hand. This also allows for better audits, as most of the clinical procedures can be traced back, allowing physicians to locate critical care points and associated risks. Effective utilization of EMRs not only improves practice workflow but enhances the overall quality.
Evidence based practice will, however, require time to nurture. It is not simple to completely modify an existing system, especially when millions of lives are at stake. The health IT industry is constantly striving towards better care delivery, in order to provide us the ability to continue living our lives without any physical or mental constraints.
