Loretta Gallagher on Helping New York’s Hospitals Face Changes

Across the nation, technology is advancing at a blistering pace that has been leaving many regulation-heavy industries like healthcare in the lurch. Healthcare has a storied history of being one of the most regulated fields in the world, and rightfully so. Medical records, like student records, banking information, and social security numbers, are some of the most highly sought-after pieces of information for hackers, identity thieves and other bad actors.

To combat this looming challenge, technology experts are working on new and innovative solutions just as quickly as technology presents new challenges. One of these recent developments, EMR (Electronic Medical Records) has reduced the risk of the theft of physical records and the likelihood that records will be misplaced or mishandled. One patient medical record that can be shared amongst health care providers is the end goal.

How and why professionals are required when considering an EMR system

Since new technologies present new challenges, many hospitals have found that their existing IT and Informatics teams are overwhelmed with the workload of a full implementation and in need of assistance to properly adapt to change. Much like existing technologies such as phone systems, networking, and IT security, EMR applications require staff with a narrow focus and established expertise. This is where experts like Loretta Gallagher, owner of Gallagher Associates, can prove to be an invaluable asset.

Gallagher Associates has been responsible for assisting numerous EMR installations for New York and New Jersey hospital systems like Cooper University Hospital, Hackensack University Hospital, WellSpan Health and Saint Joseph’s Regional Medical Center. This has given both her and her team a bird’s-eye view of the unique challenges the hospitals in our area are facing, as well as how best to handle the implementation process. According to Loretta, “bringing a hospital into a state of change involves many steps with challenges to overcome.” This is not an overnight process. In fact, EMR implementation is one of the most complex and cross-discipline updates a hospital can undergo.

Challenges

Chief among the challenges currently facing New York hospitals, is the ongoing trend of large healthcare systems purchasing smaller practices. Loretta Gallagher notes that these two unique facilities often operate on a totally different set of programs, hardware and procedures. Even in the event a smaller hospital has an existing EMR in place, it’s often managed quite differently from that of the purchasing healthcare system. This can leave gaps in workflows and bringing the entire system to one set of workflows can be challenging. As Loretta points out, “change is not necessarily trying to fix something but often trying to uniform an organization.” This is best done by a single source rather than managing expectations from representatives of both merging hospitals.

Additionally, many hospital systems experience resistance to change at various levels. Whether it’s from IT staff engrained in a certain program, practitioners accustomed to scribbling notes on a notepad instead of electronically, or administration forcing a change quicker than staff can implement, resistance is a common occurrence. This is another area where a third party can be immensely useful, as it gives an outside perspective a chance to balance expectations and keeps the healthcare staff unified in their goal of total compliance.

These challenges are especially poignant here in Brooklyn, where hospitals deal with a lack of square footage and exceedingly high population density. This results in hospitals who have to make due with a lack of space in order to provide the number of beds and the quality of service expected of them.

Why it matters

With the passing of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, hospital systems are required to transition to “meaningful use” of EMR by 2014. This incentivizes the use of EMR to protect patient information, streamline the providing of care, and improve the effects of the hospital system on the public health of the area it serves. This means EMR implementation has two important benefits that cannot be overlooked.

• The EMR system drastically improves the quality of care for the implementing healthcare network.
• Implementation of an EMR system keeps a network compliant, continuing reimbursement programs from Medicare and Medicaid.

All in all, successful implementation of a network-wide EMR system simply cannot be overlooked, and healthcare providers looking to improve their services and stay compliant should seek the input of trained professionals such as Loretta Gallagher.