How can the EHR help data quality?
One of the challenges currently is that many of the NASA Occupational Health (OH) clinics have different EHRs that are not being utilized to their full functionality. Other NASA OH clinics still rely mainly on paper for documentation. In addition, there are so many expectations of providers in terms of types of data to document, and many different forms on which to document them. The EHR does not necessarily reduce the data requirements, but provides a system in which required data elements are more obvious and easier to document and thus more standaradized across the Agency. Since providers will be directly responsible for most data entry, and will be able to immediately see and use the data they enter (such as problem lists), it is expected that the sense of ownership that this produces will lead to better and more complete data.
