Maximizing your investment in EHR. Utilizing EHRs to inform continuous quality improvement.

Many care providers are implementing EHR to improve safety, quality and efficiency of patient care. In addition to the benefits reported in previous studies, EHRs provide a foundation that facilitates quality improvement in healthcare. While quality improvement methods are increasingly being applied in healthcare, these methods depend on having reliable data on key structure, process and outcome measures. One challenge quality improvement projects face is finding timely, cost-effective ways to measure and monitor care processes. This article presents a framework for measurement in healthcare and describes how EHRs provide the infrastructure necessary to measure care processes. In addition, a case study contrasts measurement challenges faced by one hospital system prior to EHR implementatiol with simplified measurement processes enabled through EHR. Utilizing EHR as a measurement tool to enable ongoing quality improvement efforts enables care providers to increase the value they receive from investing in EHR.