Research conducted among thousands of clinicians informs the report, which covers products from six EHR vendors.
The top electronic health record challenges faced by small hospitals, as well as best practices, are described in a recent report from KLAS.
KLAS defines small community hospitals as having 1 to 200 beds, and its report, "Small Community Hospital EMR Best Practices 2021," considers the following primary EHR software intended for these hospitals:
- CPSI Evident Thrive EHR
- Allscripts Sunrise Acute Care
- MEDHOST Enterprise Clinicals
- Cerner Millennium PowerChart Touch/ CommunityWorks Clinicals
- Epic Community Connect EpicCare EMR [C]
This report lists various challenges and best practices for each vendor's EHR software, as determined by KLAS research.
According to KLAS, it is possible for any size organization, using just about any EHR software, to assure strong clinician success. Two practices identified by KLAS research are key to enabling success.
First, organizations must create a culture of success. IT and organizational leadership is crucial, including designing in regular moments for the IT team to receive feedback from clinicians on the frontline. Training to help the IT and informatics team supply quality support and communication with clinicians is also key.
Small hospitals also need to build trust in their EHR software vendor by creating a collaborative relationship with regular touch points, the KLAS report stated.
It is also important for leadership to communicate high expectations that clinicians will master the EHR software, KLAS stated.
KLAS data from more than 100,000 clinicians reveals that good training has a profound and lasting impact on EHR software satisfaction.
The other key is customized training. According to KLAS, the quality of the trainer is more important that the particular structure of the training. KLAS recommends requiring a minimum of seven hours of initial EHR software education for clinicians, and at least three hours of follow-up training yearly.
KLAS interviews thousands of healthcare professional about the IT products and services their organizations use. The questions KLAS asks are organized into six customer experience pillars: culture, loyalty, operations, product, relationship, and value.
Scott Mace is a contributing writer for HealthLeaders.