Recent years have seen significant growth in the adoption of advanced clinical systems by ambulatory care providers and inpatient facilities across the country. Drivers such as patient safety, government and commercial payor influences on documentation, and improvements in the technology have all contributed to these trends. The massive loss of paper-based medical records in the wake of hurricane Katrina underscores many of the advantages of an electronic record.

In the Hospital: The focus on patient safety in the American hospital has grown for the last seven years following the publishing of the seminal Institute of Medicine report “To Err is Human”. As a result, vendors are developing remarkable software products that help to address the core issues. By removing middlemen, eliminating the vagaries of human handwriting, and providing faster information where it’s needed; these types of systems are adding patient safety benefits to the long list of advantages of EMR and other clinical documentation systems. The challenge is that these products can be difficult to implement.

To be successful, hospitals need to apply proven methods, rigorous project management and experienced implementation resources who understand the realities of making these projects successful.