Why Moving Beyond The EHR Is Needed For Population Health

Brian Drozdowicz | EHR Intelligence | April 9, 2014

EHRs — and the data they hold — are critical to succeed in population health, but they’re not enough.

This message is surely a tough one for many US providers who have spent years and tens of millions of dollars (if not a lot more) to implement an organization-wide EHR system. According to industry analysts, many of these organizations are reluctant to consider other solutions for population health management or accountable care, choosing instead to wait for their EHR to evolve to address the new demands associated with taking on and managing risk.

It could be a long wait because what’s needed to succeed in population health — analysts largely agree — spans a wide range of functionality going far beyond what EHRs were built to do. This is an unwelcome reality owing largely to the fact that 99 percent of patient activity happens outside of the hospital or clinic, beyond the scope of the EHR.