Engaging Physicians

The foundation of any successful Connected Healthcare Community is the provider base it serves. Survey data from eHealth Initiative’s Third Annual Survey of Health Information Exchange reveals that engaging clinicians is regularly identified as a very difficult challenge by 20% of HIE initiatives and as a moderate challenge by 62%.

The following tips are recommended by the eHealth Initiative to build engagement and mindshare with clinicians in HIE:

Involve physicians when prioritizing functions — Long-term success of a Connected Healthcare Community initiative is usually predicated by regular access to information by local healthcare providers. Discussion with them is vital when determining the priority of functions to be implemented.

HIE data access, usability and workflow are critical components of success—To underline this importance, just remember that the Clinical Value Equation for HIE functions is defined as: Value = Reliable + Relevant + Workflow.

Use the right language when speaking with physicians and understand the role of peer influence/physician champions—Keep communications clear. And identify a champion to help build mindshare.

Take an incremental approach—Incrementalism should be the approach to introducing physicians to the Connected Healthcare Community. Ideally, the project should be a narrowly defined application that the community can embrace and accomplish in one year.

Recognize and appreciate the importance to physicians of trust and privacy in data use and to the physician/patient relationship.

Anticipate common clinicians’ concerns—Common concerns include security, cost, and physician resistance to transferring records from paper to electronic records.

Deal with clinicians’ concerns about program cost and improved efficiency early on—Tailor messages to clinicians to communicate the improvements in clinical care and efficiency that can be gained from clinical connectivity.

Understand and anticipate clinicians’ concerns about liability—Proactively involve clinicians and legal counsel to prepare educational materials covering security, privacy of electronic data and how it is similar to and/or different from paper data.

Work with clinicians to help them anticipate questions from patients—Educate clinicians about the typical questions they will receive, and how the relevant policies of the HIE address those common concerns.

Reinforce a collaborative and open approach among the hospital, physicians and patients.

Recognize the critical educational role that the clinician can play during the "bedside chat" in reinforcing the value and benefit of secure electronic health information exchange.

• Read more about these eleven tips and access the latest community deployment strategies from eHealth Initiative.
• It’s important to partner with a vendor that understands physician practices—that understands their complexities and nuances—and how best to gain their mindshare. Discover how Misys is uniquely positioned to help you gain physician mindshare.