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Andres Jimenez, M.D., is an advocate of the clinical automation, but he’s not too impressed with the industry track record with electronic health records implementations. By his estimate, about 50 percent of EHR implementations fail. In addition, for all the focus on computerized physician order entry systems, only about 250 hospitals nationwide have achieved “deep” CPOE use, where more than 85 percent of providers are entering orders directly into a CPOE system.

The root cause for the wheels coming off clinical automation projects often is the way hospitals approach EHR training for physicians, contends Jimenez, a practicing spine specialist and CEO of consulting firm ImplementHIT. Jimenez previously served as clinical director of content and online training at Allscripts.

“Physicians simply haven’t been trained correctly and have struggled getting to advanced levels of I.T.-enabled clinical documentation,” he says. “And it’s only going to get worse as we move forward. The industry is replacing specialty EHR systems with enterprise systems not built with anyone specific in mind—which means it’s tough for all specialties to pick up and use.”

Jimenez’s company markets e-learning systems that combine classroom and online training to address two “endpoints”: minimizing the lost productivity associated with EHR implementations, and getting physicians trained on advanced features. “Studies show the physician productivity losses average between $7,000 and $10,000 during an implementation, and that cost in clinical hours is simply too much. And to get any real value from an EHR, physicians have to be able to use the most advanced features. Anything less seriously reduces the clinical and financial benefits of EHRs.”

Jimenez will present an e-session at HIMSS11 titled “Hybrid EHR Training: Maximize Adoption & Physician Productivity.” HIMSS e-sessions are 20-minute multimedia education modules that can be accessed during the show in Room 204A, Lobby D. The co-speaker on the e-session is Margie Cornwell from St. Vincent Health, which utilized OptimizeHIT’s online/classroom training program. ImplementIT also will exhibit at booth 3385.