June 2010

Between presentations and researching EHR capabilities, I've been pretty "heads down" over the last six weeks. Will thus share a montage of news and research I've encountered recently.

Last month's HIMSS Southwest Regional conference was heavily attended by vendors and consultants. There was good representation from a small number of hospitals, but very few participants (physicians or staff) from the ambulatory world. A poll of my "Lean and Meaningful Workflow Redesign" audience indicated that it was mostly composed of vendors, consultants and internal QA professionals. As a result, I shifted the flow of my introductory presentation to take a deeper dive into managing the workflow redesign process, integrating the work into an EHR and IT deployments, measuring results, and sustaining a culture of continuous improvement. The complimentary letters I received from the HIMSS organizers and participants are greatly appreciated. Next week, I'll be presenting the same topic from a totally different perspective for AHIMA's Texas State conference in San Marcos.