Becker's Hospital Review

50 CIO / HEALTH IT Why EHR customization should be kept to a minimum: Providence St. Joseph Health CMIO By Jackie Drees A s senior vice president and chief medical information officer at Prov- idence St. Joseph Health, Michael Marino, DO, leads the Irvine, Calif.-based health system's clinical informatics depart- ment and systemwide optimization efforts. Dr. Marino first became associated with Providence St. Joseph Health in 1997 as a practicing pediatrician and member of the St. Jude Heritage Medical Group physician lead- ership team. He went on to serve as CMO at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, Calif., before assuming the role of CMIO at Provi- dence St. Joseph Health in 2012. Dr. Marino earned his DO degree from Po- mona, Calif.-based Western University of Health Sciences and his MBA at University of Massachusetts Isenberg School of Man- agement in Amherst. He is board certified in pediatrics and clinical informatics. Here, Dr. Marino discusses Providence St. Jo- seph Health's approach toward EHR customi- zation and innovation among team members. Editor's note: Responses have been lightly edit- ed for clarity and length. Question: What is one recent initia- tive you've taken to customize your EHR system? Dr. Michael Marino: It is well established that checklists can be an invaluable tool to drive standards of care, especially in high-risk conditions like sepsis, stroke and myocardial infarction. Our EHR didn't have a robust, interdisciplinary tool that could be used to track patient progress and ensure all the correct steps were happening in the required timeframe and order. So, we built a customized tool that is embedded in our EHR, which is visible across the continuum of care and owned by the entire care team. Q: What advice do you have for oth- er hospitals looking to implement an EHR customization? MM: True customization should be kept to a minimum in most EHRs. Customizations are difficult to maintain and potentially can break or require extra care with each upgrade to the soware. However, when they improve patient care or the caregiver experience, they usually are well worth the work. Q: How do you promote innovation among your team members? MM: In large healthcare organizations, promoting innovation can be difficult. Team members too oen can be head down in just keeping up with the work on projects at "scale" or worse, ending up as "ticket takers." We are putting together a program to have our internal experts start to focus on what we are calling ‹simplification,› looking for easier, more efficient ways of doing the work and not relying on the philosophy that this is the way it always has been done. Q: What has been one of your most memorable moments as CMIO? MM: I have worked in this space one way or another for 25 years. For me, what is most memorable is not a single moment but the slowly increasing ground swell of opportunity in the health information technology space. With true mobility options, voice recognition, artificial intelligence and machine learning, large IT companies, not just EHR vendors, are working to help move healthcare forward. We are seeing true excitement in this potential from our frontline nurses and physicians. n OCR settles 1st HIPAA Right of Access case with Bayfront hospital By Mackenzie Garrity T he Office for Civil Rights issued its first settlement Sept. 9 for its Right of Access Initiative, a rule which requires hospitals to provide patients with copies of their medi- cal records promptly and without being overcharged. Bayfront Health St. Petersburg (Fla.) agreed to pay $85,000 for violating the Right of Access rule. The OCR began investigat- ing an incident at the hospital after a mother complained that she was unable to gain access to her unborn child's records. More than nine months after her first request, the mother received copies of the child's medical records. The new HIPAA rule requires healthcare providers to release medical records to patients within 30 days of the request. Additionally, providers must only charge a reasonable cost- based fee. Along with paying the settlement, Bayfront will undergo a corrective action plan, which includes one year of monitor- ing by the OCR. n Epic's making a mark on small practices, KLAS finds By Jackie Drees E pic implementations among small healthcare prac- tices appear to be increasing as more practices join local accountable care organizations and affiliate with other organizations that use Epic, according to a KLAS Research report. For its Pulse Check: Epic Small Practices EMR report, KLAS compiled performance ratings from small prac- tices, comprised of only one to 10 physicians, for Epic's Community Connect EMR. Here's how the participating organizations ranked Epic Community Connect on a 100-point scale: • Ninety-three percent said that Epic Community Con- nect is part of their organization's long-term plans. • Ninety-three percent said they would purchase the EHR software again. • Eighty-six percent said the EHR software keeps all of its promises. n

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