In a tough economic climate, it’s no wonder that the belt-tightening has trickled down to IT investments. Many physicians are scaling down their plans and adopting a wait-and-see approach -- hospitals are considering holding off renovations or plans to increase capacity and the purchase of clinical technology or equipment is being pushed to the back burner. Among these downsides, though, there is a silver lining: practices are now being forced to move toward efficiencies in health information technology (HIT).

Is it possible to do more with less HIT? “Absolutely,” says Bill Gilbert, of AdvantEdge Healthcare Solutions (AHS), a medical billing provider. “Physicians can do more with less by carefully evaluating and choosing technology that is truly necessary for their business versus ‘nice to have,’ and by adjusting their work processes to leverage the critical technology.”

‘Lean’ thinking as applied to healthcare is the efficient use of staff and resources, especially technology, to provide the highest level of service to the patient. Experts say that physicians can streamline their operations by taking steps such as:

• Outsourcing IT: Farming out tasks like help-desk support can enable physician offices to save on costs while developing skills internally.
• Negotiating maintenance fees, installments and upgrades: Some vendors are willing to negotiate contracts to retain business during tough financial times.
• Evaluating: Scrutinizing which IT projects are worth the investment and which need to be relegated to the bottom of the list.
• Planning ahead: Avoid knee-jerked responses and putting a temporary fix on pertinent situations, since positioning yourself for the future is crucial.

“A common pitfall during the evaluation of new technology is when physicians find themselves believing that one IT product can ‘do it all’ without understanding how well each function performs,” Gilbert says. He notes that this can be avoided by understanding your practice’s needs in detail before evaluating potential technologies.

"Physicians must also remember that any technology implementation requires substantial modification to practice workflows; oftentimes, this impact on practice workflows is underestimated or not properly prepared for.”

With interoperability standards facilitating “best of breed” and “plug and play” applications, Kevin Weinstein of ZirMed, a healthcare revenue cycle management solution, says that as HIT advances, integrated products will provide more solutions and offer packaged functions, with the best systems able to merge clinical and financial data. “It’s important that practices not be seduced by pretty screens or flashy graphics,” Weinstein says. “An ugly tool that fits a practice’s workflow and that is easy to learn and use is more valuable than a great looking tool that provides lots of information a practice will never use.”

The bottom line: training staff and implementing a system specifically for your practice's environment are key long-term success factors. “Overall, HIT has facilitated an integrated flow of information that creates quicker results with better patient care when used properly,” says Ronald R McLaughlin of RMK Holdings, a revenue management company. “But you need the proper implementation and execution strategy.”