Published by: Susan ruce@osumc.edu - Moffatt Bruce on 10/21/2011 1:07:34 PM
This entry is the fifth in a series for National Healthcare Quality Week (Oct. 16-22).
“Continuously improve continuous improvement” is a quote I recently heard and really proved to help me understand why things continue to change. One of the biggest changes for our academic medical center is the implementation of the electronic medical record (EMR) in what is being termed the “Big Bang”. We have been getting ready for this for the past two years and alas, it is upon us.
So why should we embrace such a huge change to what was the status quo? Now the answer is obvious: To continue on our journey of continuous improvement. Whilst the initial “Big Bang” will be challenging and put our resilience to the test, it will ultimately improve patient care like no other innovation thus far. As of July 1st, 2011, Value-Based Purchasing went live, and as we try to come to terms with this, we have an opportunity to succeed with the use of our EMR. If correctly applied, we will be able to not only track our compliance but identify opportunities to improve. As an integrated system we will also be able to actually have a robust system for comparative effective research and further our academic mission.
However, innovation can often be disruptive in its initial stages. It is likely that the implementation of the EMR will put to the test our ability to predict and mitigate failure modes and to put in place counter measures to continue our high standard of patient care. It is our intent to share our experience, considering that to date we are the largest academic medical center to go live with an EMR as a “Big Bang”. Our lessons learned will facilitate the next institution in its deployment of innovation so that we can all successfully “continuously improve continuous improvement”. We will update through NAPH routinely about our ongoing journey with the EMR.
Susan Moffatt Bruce, MD, PHD
Chief Quality and Patient Safety Officer
The Ohio State University Medical Center