Physician Engagement at Houston Methodist: Let Doctors be Doctors

Nicholas Desai, MD, CMIO, Houston Methodist, Arthur Sorrell, MD, Principal and Physician Executive, and Christina Boling, Advisor, Impact Advisors.  Physician engagement and preparedness are among the strongest factors influencing the overall success or failure of an EHR implementation.  Houston Methodist strongly believes that to achieve physician efficiency, they must identify human-centric versus computer-centric workflows, and fundamentally design the tools, wherever possible, to maximize adoption while minimizing variation.  They applied and reinforced a customer relationship management approach that included these principles:  Know your physician population intimately; customize your approach; target your messaging; deconstruct traditional training; facilitate personalization to protect productivity; and finally, let doctors be doctors.  Drs. Desai and Sorrell and Christina discuss Houston Methodist’s approach, structure, challenges, lessons learned for physician engagement at this large IDN with a diverse physician population and practice/business models.