Treatment plans, notes, prescriptions, billing, and every bit of data funnel into and out of electronic health records (EHR) as a central patient care nerve center. If yours can’t keep up, it could lead to disaster, including:
- Poor patient experience
- Inconvenient workarounds
- Staff burnout
Set the stage from the start with an effective EHR implementation. We’ll show you which pitfalls to avoid and a tested process for success.
Don’t fall into these EHR implementation traps
Clinicians spend almost as much time with the EHR as they do with patients. Your new software will be the team’s primary operational tool, so it better work. Selecting the right solution is only half the battle—you also need to navigate the minefield of EHR implementation challenges.
Overly Ambitious Timelines
A fresh EHR implementation may be long overdue. This wouldn’t be surprising—65 percent of hospitals want to improve their EHR tech. Administrators, in particular, are often eager to get solutions in place, creating quick turnaround benchmarks that can undermine the project.
But you also can’t rush perfection. A successful EHR implementation accounts for every need to prevent risk—and that takes anywhere from 12-24 months.
Poor Change Management
Don’t fool yourself into believing you can turn off your old EHR and activate a new one overnight. Too many healthcare organizations ignore change management entirely, trying desperately to force new software into old workflows. This approach is backward. Instead, update your processes to leverage the new EHR’s capabilities.
Insufficient Training
IT departments frequently rely on “train-the-trainer” sessions, teaching nurses who then attempt to train physicians. This creates gaps and inconsistencies. Physicians end up learning the system on the fly from floor nurses because they lack dedicated training time.
There is a better option. Develop training programs tailored to each user group’s needs and individuals’ learning styles, utilizing multiple formats, from brief tutorials to detailed video instruction.
Follow 6 steps to make your EHR implementation a success
With the whirlwind of activity every day, clinicians can’t stop to think, “Is this working properly?” Team efficiency and patient care depend on a seamless EHR implementation. Overcome your biggest obstacles with these best practices for system launch.
1. Choose Software That Aligns With Your Needs
Imagine if one of your clinicians prescribed the wrong dosage of medication as a result of the new EHR being difficult to navigate. Invest the time to select an EHR with the functions and user experience to suit your organization, including simple data entry and clinical decision support.
Organizations requiring frequent collaboration and communication between facilities should prioritize interoperability to pull in data from across systems, ranging from pharmacy to radiology.
2. Identify project champions
Create groups of volunteer advocates—nurses, physicians, admin personnel, and so on—to build momentum for the changes to come. Project champions are part beta tester and part internal influencer. Provide them early access to the software so they can:
- Build support and buy-in
- Act as a bridge between staff members and the project team
- Help colleagues during EHR implementation
3. Develop a project charter and implementation plan
Once you’ve selected the appropriate software and secured internal support, it’s time to put it all together.
Start by moving from ideation to documentation. Create a charter to record your goals and objectives, and use it to make a project plan:
- Define key dates
- Schedule vendor testing
- Plan team training
- Determine a transition plan
4. Work with clinicians and end users
Just because it’s software doesn’t mean it’s only an IT issue. Research shows that build teams mostly involve end users through discussions alone—if at all. Make a point of engaging them in your EHR implementation from start to finish:
- Building
- Testing
- Training
Core staffers can be invaluable across the board. Involve nurses, respiratory care, lab techs, radiologists, pharmacists, and others in system evaluations and get their feedback throughout the project.
5. LEan on Super users
Bringing clinicians along early on the journey pays dividends, with champions achieving a higher level of understanding to become super users later. Because they’ve been part of the project from the beginning, super users helped work out the kinks—and they can assist with hands-on training too.
6. Overcommunicate
Emails hit the spam folder, and formal training takes a back seat to patient care responsibilities. Use a variety of means to keep the entire staff updated about the status of your EHR implementation and let them know when to expect change.
- Have frequent face-to-face conversations
- Post flyers in high-traffic areas
- Hand out goodies alongside your message
Champion your EHR implementation success
Healthcare organizations often pick from cookie-cutter EHRs that don’t support their unique demands and processes—and have a narrow view of what’s required of an implementation project. Take the lead with an EHR implementation that integrates team experts and end users to configure and personalize the ideal solution.
Juno EHR is built BY clinicians FOR clinicians to meet your unique demands across disciplines and workflows. Our goal is to reduce overload and burnout while supporting your healthcare operations. Schedule some time today to learn more about our implementation expertise.
