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As EMR vendors continue to expand their capabilities and IT departments push for a single vendor solution; there is an inevitable pressure to question "Why do we need a system like OTTR"?
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EMR systems are incredibly important to provide a single point of access for the clinical data for hospitals. They have the potential to improve patient care and reduce errors which could result from poor record keeping and missed follow ups. EMR systems l focus on inpatient care and outpatient clinic visits. They support physician order entry, physician documentation, nursing notes and many other needs.
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OTTR™ is a transplant database and workflow engine designed to capture back-office documentation and workflow management. The core capabilities of the system are to manage patients and populations; to drive workflow follow up on patients independent of scheduled clinic visits; and to capture data on patients. This data is in turn reported out to comply with UNOS, CMS, and other regulatory requirements.
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Frequently discussions move to the topic of the overlap of functionality of the EMR and of OTTR™. There is a functionality overlap between OTTR™ and an EMR. One client review of the functionality measured this overlap at approximately 30% - 40%. At the time this was measured the EMR vendor lacked a transplant 'module'; it was also in an environment where much of OTTR's more recent functionality was not yet in use.
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It might be appropriate in the same discussion to measure the proposed EMR vendor as a provider of Transplant data. Analysis of transplant population data is becoming the core talking point of every transplant leadership conference. Trend lines, life tables, dashboards, data extracts, research queries are all needed on a daily basis. Beyond research queries population data informs and improves clinical outcomes.
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A second highly relevant point in transplant databases is configurability. What is the system capability and/or the vendor willingness to change the system based on customer feedback? Where these changes are localized, are they easy to identify, build and implement in production environments? What is the realistic turnaround time for small changes and what is the cost (actual and hospital staff time) of performing them?
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Finally, in any discussion of commercial IT products it is important to measure real experience with real customers. Transplant is a unique health care environment. The transplant communities’ need for data is significant and has been ever changing. This requires a vendor focused on transplant and who has an understanding of the unique needs of transplant centers. HKS is dedicated to understanding each centers unique needs and providing them a solution which can best serve their individual requirements.
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