COVID-19 has created a burning platform to fundamentally transform clinical processes to reduce the cost base, enable the restructure of the physician enterprise, and transform the clinical operating model. To recapture volume and revenue, health systems must quickly transform their clinical operating model to provide coexisting systems of care for COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients. They must also make strategic changes to deploy tailored primary care models, restructure procedural specialty practices, and organize integrated specialty care teams—all while quickly stabilizing and expanding their virtual health platform. These demands only add to the clinical operations improvement agenda that predated the pandemic. Electronic health records (EHRs) will be a pivotal enabler of successful clinical transformation to advance these efforts.
EHR implementation and optimization strategies deployed to date haven’t driven material value and will be woefully insufficient to drive the transformation required in the age of COVID-19.
