Health IT is underutilized in improving quality care in primary care, according to a report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
The report aggregates literature on using health IT for quality improvement, thoughts from a technical panel of health IT experts representing industry stakeholders and interviews with clinicians and quality improvement leaders from leaders in various sizes of healthcare institutions.
The report outlines four factors that support the use of health IT for quality improvement in primary care.
1. A practice culture committed to using IT for quality improvement: Such a culture includes commitment to the cause by leadership who also holds others responsible to the processes of a learning organization.
2. High-functioning health IT tools: Such tools include EHRs, registries, decision support systems and health information exchanges.
3. A clinical team and staff with knowledge and skills regarding IT and quality improvement: A knowledgeable team is necessary to extract and analyze IT data, executive improvement methods and redesign workflows.
4. Processes and workflows that incorporate the use of IT for quality improvement: Primary care offices seeking to improve quality should implement structured procedures to measure and report data on both the practice-level and the clinician-level.
To read the full report, click here.
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