There are many benefits to health information technology (HIT) systems, but implementing a system can be tricky.
The Joint Commission has released recommendations that can help you safely and effectively implement an HIT system.
Although most of the commission’s advice is aimed at large hospitals and health systems, some is applicable to physician practices implementing HIT.
- Plan, plan, plan. Make sure you get an HIT product that is right for your practice.
- Involve anyone who will use the HIT system in planning and selection. Include both clinical and administrative staff.
- Consider the costs and resources needed for startup and maintenance.
- Consult product reviews and alerts before choosing a system. Don’t rely exclusively on advice from HIT vendors.
- Implementing an HIT system can expose problems in manual workflow systems, so these problems should be resolved before switching over to an HIT system.
- Carefully integrate the new HIT system into existing workflow processes to maintain patient care delivery.
- Make time to train everyone who will be using the technology. Learning how to use technology can be frustrating.
- Provide frequent refresher training.
- Make sure all components of your HIT system are properly integrated and updated consistently.
- Continuously monitor for problems, and address issues as quickly as possible.
- Reassess and enhance safety effectiveness and error detection.
- Monitor and report errors caused by the technology.
- Periodically reassess the system’s HIPAA compliance.