Dive Brief:
- According to a study published in Health Affairs, physicians can help 8% to 15% more patients if they put health IT tools in place, even if levels of health IT adoption vary.
- In medical groups where a higher percentage of physicians use EMRs or patient portals, productivity gains could be higher, researchers said.
- Doctors who use emerging technologies such has remote care could perform 5% to 10% of care to patients outside of office visits, and 5% to 15% of care could be performed asynchronously, according to the study.
Dive Insight:
While this study offers hope to those currently struggling with EMRs or other health IT add-ons, it should be taken with a grain of salt. Practices may indeed see productivity gains courtesy of these new technologies, but it can take many months of trial-and-error workflow adjustments before the gains are realized. Practices should do what they can to anticipate needed workflow changes and address them, or health IT could actually decrease productivity for quite some time.