Mr Jans, why have you opted for EPR deep integration?
We realized we needed to keep the admin work involved in launching the EPR to a minimum. Instead of having to manually upload all documents to the EPR, it is now automated thanks to integration. This means acceptance of the EPR is a lot higher among our staff as it scarcely involves any extra work for them.
Were there any stumbling blocks in the project?
The biggest challenge was definitely coordinating and communicating with everyone involved, in other words external partners, who took care of technical implementation, as well as the suppliers of our EPR and hospital information system. The second challenge was adapting the internal processes to integrate the EPR into everyday work. We gave our staff EPR training so they can professionally provide patients with information. And, lastly, we set up a support process for technical and administrative problems and drafted helpful documentation. It will take some time for everything to be in place and for the extended team to familiarize themselves with it.
Was Sanela able to assist you with these challenges?
Sanela was great to work with. We especially appreciated the fact we had a point of contact who helped us with technical implementation. This significantly reduced the complexity involved.
How specifically does the EPR and its deep integration benefit your team and your patients today?
The biggest advantage is undoubtedly having access to patient documents, which saves a lot of time. This is because we no longer have to phone around like we used to, looking for the information in different places. The EPR may not be in widespread use yet, but the number of patients who have an EPR has already increased substantially in recent months. We’re convinced that more and more users will take it up.
Another advantage for the hospital and the staff is that the documents from the EPR can be integrated with ease into the hospital’s system: a click of the mouse is all it takes. Uploading documents to the EPR is even fully automated, meaning staff no longer have to do anything whatsoever. Automation makes day-to-day life in our hospital easier.
Ultimately, patients benefit from the EPR because they can assume that doctors always have direct access to their data and that they are well informed about their case.
And where do you see room for improvement?
Many documents in the EPR are PDFs. This means certain data, such as diagnoses, allergies and medication, is not yet structured or standardized. Instead, it has to be manually transferred to the HIS. Being able to directly import structured data would be a major advance here. As it stands, we’ve made a start with structured data with the vaccination module, and I understand that others such as medication lists are set to follow.
What is your advice to hospitals without EPR integration?
My advice would be to start planning integration now! It’s a lot of effort to begin with, but it is sustainable, and you benefit enormously. The effort involved without integration would be just as high: you’d have to develop manual processes and to employ and train additional personnel. This, in turn, would result in far lower acceptance among staff.
Lastly, I’d like to say that our experiences with the EPR have been consistently positive. Today, we use all the existing functionalities. What’s more, we firmly believe that, based on our experience, and with more applications added, it will continue to improve.
