As a family practice physician, I understand how health IT is improving outcomes in the ambulatory setting. In a recently published report, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), came to the same conclusion.
The report “highlights key findings and lessons from the experience” of 24 projects awarded funding by the AHRQ. According to the report, the projects “demonstrated significant progress toward…advancing understanding of how clinicians can use health IT to improve the quality of care.”
The projects focused around four primary areas:
In my own readings, I have seen that surveys of providers shows a balanced acceptance of numerous features of EMRs, confirming yet again the national trends toward greater understanding and acceptance of the power of health IT.
The AHRQ report contributes to the ever-mounting evidence about EMR use: that well thought out and well implemented support tools can improve patient outcomes by standardizing care, by coordinating care and by providing appropriate alerts, all while fitting into acceptable clinician workflow.