Introduction to the MHS GENESIS EHR Issues
The DoD’s deployment of the new MHS GENESIS EHR system was assumed to be a new level of modernization for military health care. However, tests found that the system was not effective or sustainable for use due to poor usability issues, lack of training, and insufficient help-desk support. Furthermore, although the EHR system received massive amounts of investments, it ultimately failed to align with daily workflows, suffered long backlogs, and threatened overall patient safety. These issues are a direct failure of a lack of human-centered design, which would have aligned functional requirements with real-world use, so that end users could have access to an efficient EHR system from day one.
The Cost of Lacking User Experience in Design
The MHS GENESIS EHR system faced major challenges because the system failed to live up to real-world expectations and needs. For instance, it could not keep up with responding to users, it had confusing interfaces, and its help desk could not keep up with the surge of issues and questions. Furthermore, without sufficient training being offered to staff, many of them chose to create workarounds or use the previous EHR system at the same time. This decreased user adoption and also undermined trust and patient safety in military healthcare.
A health IT company like HITS, which appreciates the importance of incorporating people into solutions, would have approached these risks differently. Our focus on user-centered design and experience ensures platforms are developed by being designed and tested with clinician involvement. This ensures they measure up to real-world expectations. Furthermore, we emphasize system reliability and testing, so that performance is tested under real-world conditions well before launch. By doing this, HITS ensures that unmet requirements are uncovered early on in the process, unnecessary rework is avoided, and successful adoption is promoted.
Continuous Improvement Mitigates Risks
Beyond the surface-level interface problems, the MHS GENESIS rollout also suffered from failing to improve user satisfaction issues and failing to improve identity issues. When systems are launched without sufficient change management or accountability, then they have a greater chance of failing under operational demand.
HITS helps to mitigate these risks throughout the process by focusing on change management and planning, process improvement and quality assurance, and system reliability and testing. For instance, HITS ensures that training is properly mapped to user roles, that help-desk capabilities are scaled appropriately, and that change frameworks allow for real-time feedback loops. This ensures that accountability, transparency, and iterative improvements are possible for these large-scale system rollouts, which reduces overall failure and risk.
The Importance of Building for People
The DoD’s EHR deployment highlights the cost of not designing for people. Ultimately, the issues resulted in decreased trust, reduced patient safety, and frustrated end-users. HITS offers a path forward by leading with empathy, rigorous testing, and a user-first design that ensures that platforms are ready to serve from launch. Ultimately, when platforms are built with emotional intelligence, trust, and empathy, then they are able to become a tool for better health outcomes, rather than a barrier to care.
HITS
HITS provides healthcare management services and partners with stakeholders to design health informatics tools that promote safe, secure, and reliable care experiences by ensuring that technology implements empathy, accountability, transparency, and human-centered design from the start. By infusing empathy and emotional intelligence into every solution, we ensure technology enhances rather than replaces or hinders human connection. By combining government expertise with healthcare management, we deliver collaborative, high-quality solutions across military, federal, and commercial sectors. We take pride in our services and settle for nothing other than 100% quality solutions for our clients. Having the right team assist with data sharing is crucial to encouraging collaborative and secure care. If you’re looking for the right team that delivers technology with heart, HITS is it! You can reach out to us directly at info@healthitsol.com. Check out this link if you’re interested in having a 15-minute consultation with us: https://bit.ly/3RLsRXR.