Integrating Reference Tools with the EMR
Ran into a press release the other day from EBSCO, touting the ease of integrating it’s point-of-care tools into EMR/EHRs, “[w]ith the EBSCOhost® Integration Toolkit (EIT)” which “…provides a comprehensive set of flexible web services based on XML/SOAP standards for establishing direct links from their EHR/EMRs to applicable clinical reference resources from EBSCO.”
This makes me sigh and fret.
I know that the integration of information tools into our hospital’s EMR system is absolutely essential, but haven’t gotten far with this yet. The CIO did agree to link to the library’s portal from the EMR (Eclipsys Sunrise Clinical Manager), and that’s great because it makes the library’s resources accessible to any clinican with an internet connection and an Active Directory account for a our network- but it isn’t enough. There are too many steps between the identification of a need for clinical information based on a patient’s chart and the retrieval of that information. Clinicians won’t use tools they find inconvenient.
I’m not immediately finding a lot of literature to use as a guide, either. Before I submit a call for advice to MEDLIB-L, I thought I’d post it here first. Any thoughts? Any favorite articles on the topic? Anyone who has integrated tools with Eclipsys Sunrise Clinical Manager?
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