A unified, clinician-focused "packets-to-patients" measurement approach for meaningful and usable electronic health records

In most medical facilities, the systems, software, and data that support clinical and business operations have been developed independently and in isolation. This makes it difficult for the systems to efficiently and effectively access the data and metrics needed to improve clinical processes, achieve desired patient outcomes, or make informed business decisions. Furthermore, determining the benefit of current or proposed clinical processes or business practices from these systems is often inefficient and ad hoc, even though the data required is available within these systems. In response to this, we have developed a unified “Packets-to-Patients” approach to measuring key elements of the clinical, business, and technical operations of the medical enterprise. From these elements we derive benefits that are validated as meaningful within those domains. Our approach automatically and efficiently collects data that establishes whether the stages of Electronic Health Record (EHR) Meaningful Use criteria are being met. It also measures EHR adoption rates, clinical benefits like quality of care and patient safety, and business benefits like decreased length of stay and improved workflow efficiency. Our analytical approach has been field-tested and proven through nearly three years of development. This methodology has measured baseline system performance at several medical treatment facilities and also provided those organizations with an in-depth understanding of how health Information Technology (health IT) performance impacts clinical and business operations. More importantly, our approach has enabled rigorous analysis and fact-based decision-making on how best to integrate health IT into clinical operations. Most importantly, this approach allows health care delivery organizations to design a business case based on hard data and increases the likelihood of success in adopting and optimizing health IT.