Revelations in Regional HIE Development

HCI: Over the long term, though, this will lead to improved processes, correct?

Taylor: Yes, and I don’t think it will take until the long term, but it will involve some interesting interactions. And GE and McKesson have added the capability of showing the coded data to their products, within one view on one page. But we asked them to include in this not the system or institution that that information came from, but the actual person, the clinician who entered the data; and we list the person by name. So if you do a sloppy job, not only will the information be visible to them, but your name will be right next to the poor documentation. And that will be a subtle but powerful motivator. Because nobody wants to do a bad job, and nobody wants to be seen to do a bad job, and I’m utterly shameless in using that phenomenon for the benefit of the patients.

HCI: What would you tell CIOs about your experiences around regional HIE development?

Taylor: I think that the biggest thing that you need to do with the HIE, especially if you’re a health system CIO and especially if you don’t have a clinical background, is that you have to have a credible, believable, plain-language rationale and explanation for what you’ll do with this and why; because ultimately, if it doesn’t change the practice of medicine, you’ve failed. So if you aren’t comfortable at the bedside, find somebody who is, and if they’re not comfortable explaining this, keep looking and keep talking until you find your answers.

HCI: Are the clinicians getting the hang of this so far?

Taylor: I think the physicians at Seaside will eventually forgive me [laughs]. They’re very much in the throes of this. The senior physician leadership, those with the 10,000-foot view, they see this and they get it. The pilot is working as well as I’d expected it would, and frankly, the technology is working very well indeed.