Q&A: Mike Lee and Lori Jones

How important is data accuracy in home health care?

LEE: It is critical for caregiviers to have an efficient solution for managing patient data when ordering products electronically. If patient data is inaccurate, there is a greater risk of patients receiving incorrect products. That’s why we’re working with various partners to bring new supply interfaces to market for licensed home health and hospice agencies to directly impact clinician and patient challenges.

JONES: Clearly, having accurate patient information available to the caregiver is critical to delivering quality care. Without the patient’s full record accessible, caregivers may have to rely on the patient or their family members to recall critical information about medication doses or when specific supplies were last ordered.

How has technology played a role in the way clinicians record patient data?

JONES: While the majority of home care clinicians are now using some type of EMR to record patient information, generally EMR systems are not meeting their usability needs. However, a modern, streamlined and intuitive point-of-care EMR solution can greatly assist clinicians in delivering consistent quality care and provide all the essential documentation necessary to meet today’s regulatory requirements.

Clinicians want more time with patients and less time with paperwork. is this a problem?

LEE: Today’s clinicians have their hands full. They’re providing direct care and spending a tremendous amount of time on paperwork. As more agencies want more nurses seeing more patients, we are actively working with industry experts and partners to identify innovative ways to help frontline caregivers help patients with accuracy and efficiency so more time can be spent on delivering care. JONES: Clinicians and patients are both better off if clinicians can easily manage and document all aspects of a patient’s care at the point of care. Our native iPad point-of-care solution enables clinicians to navigate from one section of the health record to another, in real-time, as they document a patient visit. This reduces the amount of homework they have to do after hours to document their visits.

How does technology help to enhance the overall patient experience?

LEE: We are committed to helping to address common patient data entry challenges by making sure patients receive the right products when and where they need them by finding ways to simplify the ordering process. JONES: To help improve accuracy during the online ordering process and ultimately help clinicians provide better care to their patients, the Brightree supply interface with Medline ensures that caregivers only need to enter in patient data once rather than each time when ordering products.

How can technology help increase efficiency?

JONES: EMR solutions should help clinicians be more efficient by complementing and guiding the work they do. For example, best-of-breed EMRs have built-in clinical information about certain diagnoses that helps accelerate the creation of a comprehensive care plan. They also provide intelligent guidance for documenting against care plans without forcing irrelevant documentation. For more information, visit www.medline.com and www.brightree.com.