Do's & Don'ts for Successful EHR Implementation

You have purchased an electronic health records system (EHR) and are eagerly preparing for installation and utilization. You've developed the timetables for training and implementation of the new system. However, there are several important factors to consider:

1. Implementation is more about the people than the computers.
2. The federal government estimates that EHR failure rate tops 30%, with nearly 20% of healthcare organizations uninstalling their system.

Here are a few do's and don'ts to keep in mind:

• DO get every department in a large group involved in the roll out.
• DO make templates simple enough for employees to us.
• DO allot plenty of uninterrupted time for training.
• DO introduce the easiest functions first.
• DO schedule fewer patients when you go live with electronic charting.
• DO count on complaints and be ready to respond to them calmly.
• DON'T assume you know everything about how an employee should adapt to their EHR job.
• DON'T let group practice doctors in the same specialty have individualized templates for entering data.
• DON'T scale back on training to save money.
• DON'T turn on an EHR function without testing it beforehand.
• DON'T schedule "go live day" during the flu season.
• DON'T expect everyone to use the system in exactly the same way at first.

However you manage the implementation, remember that there will be skeptics within your group who are averse to the changes. Your primary goal is to help convert those skeptics to believers.