This post is part of Iron Mountain’s Healthcare Information Governance: Big Picture Predictions and Perspectives Series which looks at the key trends impacting Healthcare Information Governance. Be sure to check out all the entries in this series.
Healthcare information governance (IG) has been important ever since doctors started tracking their patients in paper charts. However, over the past few years, adoption of EHR and other healthcare IT systems has exploded and provided a myriad of new opportunities and challenges associated with governance of a healthcare organization’s information.
Three of the most important health information governance challenges are:
1. Defining the legal health record
2. Ensuring quality health data
3. Managing a part-paper, part-electronic record
Defining the Legal Health Record
In the paper chart world, defining the legal health record was much easier. As we’ve shifted to an electronic world, the volume of data that’s stored in these electronic systems is so much greater. This has created a major need to define what your organization considers the legal health record.
The reality is that each organization now has to define its own legal health record based on CMS and accreditation guidelines, but also based on the specifics of their operation (state laws, EHR options, number of health IT systems, etc). The legal health record will only be a subset of the data that’s being stored by an EHR or other IT system and you’ll need to involve a wide group of people from your organization to define the legal health record.
Doing so is going to become increasingly important. Without a clearly defined legal health record, you’re going to produce an inconsistent release of information. This can lead to major liability issues in court cases where you produce inconsistent records, but it’s also important to be consistent when releasing health information to other doctors or even auditors.
One challenge we face in this regard is ensuring that EHR vendors provide a consistent and usable data output. A lot of thought has been put into how data is inputted into the EHR, but not nearly as much effort has been put into the way an EHR outputs that data. This is a major health information governance challenge that needs to be addressed. Similarly, most EHR vendors haven’t put much thought and effort into data retention either. Retention policies are an important part of defining your legal health record, but your policy is subject to the capabilities of the EHR.
Working with your EHR and other healthcare IT vendors to ensure they can produce a consistent legal health record is one strategic imperative that every healthcare organization should have on their list.
Ensuring Quality Health Data
The future of healthcare is very much going to be data driven. Payments to ACO organizations are going to depend on data. The quality of care you provide using Clinical Decision Support (CDS) systems is going to rely on the quality of data being used. Organizations are going to have new liability concerns …read more
