Sanford Health used NLP study to guide standardization in its EHR templates in order to eliminate bloat

Providers at Sanford Health had been sharing feedback that a lot of the information in the note section of the EHR (electronic health records) was not necessarily useful for the person reading the notes.

Information was organized differently by each note author, and note readers had to adjust to many individual templates. One provider scrolled through a 19-page printed document to get to the information needed in one paragraph on the last page of the note.

Based on the findings of the “Prevalence and Sources of Duplicate Information in the Electronic Medical Record” research project, Sanford Health designed a standardized note template that encourages providers to document everything they need to – and nothing they don't. It started from the basic principle that a note is a form of communication to other providers and patients, and not a review tool for the note author.